Now that we're three series into the Disney+ MCU it's becoming incredibly obvious that Kevin Feige is using the streaming service to continue the MCU storytelling. We have characters moving from Disney+ series - films (hi Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine; I won't call ya Val
) and it's clear that "WandaVision" is leading into DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS and "Loki" is at least going to be connected to ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA, if not other films. "Loki" in particular feels like its setting up the next big event in the Marvel universe, with the Multiversal War: introducing a character we know is in QUANTUMANIA, and a concept (broadly, the Multiverse) that seems to impact the Doctor Strange sequel, as well as rumors concerning the third Spidey film (bringing in characters and actors from Sony Spidey films, though admittedly this could just be Marvel and Sony playing nice to connect their worlds).
For folks with the streaming service, this is great. Since "WandaVision" premiered in mid-January, we've gotten 3 series and a feature film in almost exactly six months ("Loki's" season 1 finale dropped 24 hours before the 6 month anniversary of the "WandaVision" premier).
But if you don't have Disney+, one could feel a little bit left out. Val (sorry, I lied: brevity) appearing in BLACK WIDOW wasn't a big deal, especially since BLACK WIDOW was almost certainly supposed to be her intro to the MCU and not "Falcon and the Winter Soldier." But "Loki" feels bigger: like it's setting up the entire next big event. I wonder how much not having the streaming service could be a detriment to the movie fans uninterested/unable to subscribe to Disney+.
Now, Kevin Feige is a comics nerd: he got his first big break working on the original X-MEN film because he knew so much about the comics. He's surely familiar with huge crossover events, and how one could read just the main book (for example, Marvel's Civil War story), skip all the crossovers they're not interested in, maybe continue to read their favorite main titles (like Spidey, since that's a popular book), and still be mostly in the loop. The crossovers in other books fill in some gaps, add to the story, color in details, and include more characters: maybe like a bonus. So it's plausible/probably the films will do the same thing: keep everything nice and neat, with folks up-to-date w/Disney+ series getting 'bonus content' but folks w/out the streaming service getting the gist of the stories, and complete movie stories, w/out missing out on too important details.
The fact Disney/Marvel have said there aren't plans to release the streaming series to Blu-ray makes sense from a business standpoint I suppose, but it seems like they may be shutting out some fans (though, honestly, at $8 someone can just pay for 1 month of Disney+ and binge everything in 30 days to get caught up before a big movie).
What do you guys think: those of you w/out Disney+ do you feel like you're missing out? Obviously only time will tell, I suppose...