Marvel TV Universe

The Marvel TV Universe is a shared media television franchise that airs on NBC. The universe began in 2012 with the premiere of Iron Man, and soon gained new series Spider-Man, Captain America, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Captain Marvel. Each series is based on characters from Marvel Comics.

Production
In September 2011, NBC bought the rights to a Disney-produced Iron Man television series. The series was ordered to series early, in December of the same year. Casting began in January, and Matt Lanter was cast as Tony Stark. Yvonne Strahovski and Omar Epps were cast as Pepper Potts and James Rhodes the following month, and in March, Mike Vogel, Emma Dumont, Peter Gallagher, and Christopher Meloni rounded out the cast. The show was a success, especially when moved to an earlier timeslot, and led to talks of a spin-off, one based on Spider-Man. Ansel Elgort was cast in August 2013 to appear as Peter Parker in an episode of Iron Man that fall. After popularity over the character increased, NBC ordered Spider-Man straight-to-series in January 2014, and it premiered the fall. By May 2015, another spin-off was in talks, this time based on Captain America. The series was ordered late and premiered mid-season 2016. Talks of a Shang-Chi spin-off from Iron Man were in order, and a pilot was filmed, but NBC passed on the series in May 2016, the first and currently only Marvel pilot not to make it at the network. Another series, initially unconnected, Guardians of the Galaxy, premiered in September 2017, but was not officially integrated with the rest of the series until the Infinity War crossover in 2019.