Even as Marvel’s Iron Fist finally completed the sequence of Netflix heroes that will bring us The Defenders team-up, certain fans will never give up hope that the four could join the larger collective of cinematic Avengers. Sadly, The Falcon is none-too-keen on such a crossover, as Anthony Mackie dismisses Marvel’s TV heroes as “different universes, different worlds.”

The quote reportedly emerged from Mackie’s appearance at Wizard World Cleveland (via ScreenGeek, unaffiliated), wherein the Captain America and Ant-Man star pointed to Marvel movie head Kevin Feige as having no input on any of the TV properties, thereby discounting them:

Different universes, different worlds, different companies, different designs. Kevin Feige is very specific about how he wants the Marvel Universe to be seen in the film world. It wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t work at all.

It’s true that Marvel’s movie and TV properties are run independently, though it remains an endless source of fascination where that line is drawn. The Defenders series seem unusually fixated on the events of 2012’s Avengers as “The Incident” (never addressing any of the movies since), while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has taken great pain to keep continuity with Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, and even Doctor Strange.

Perhaps most amusingly of all, Iron Fist became the third Defender series to compose street scene key art with Avengers Tower visible in the background, despite the fact that this building has never appeared onscreen in any Marvel TV property. In fact, Iron Fist features imagery of New York’s MetLife building more prominently than any before it, despite Tony Stark having taken over and redesigned this building as far back as 2012.

Naturally, Anthony Mackie shouldn’t be viewed as the final authority, and we’ve heard time and time again that the disparate production schedules make even casual references between the movie and TV stories a logistical nightmare. Still, should Marvel TV consider dropping its fealty to the movies altogether?

 

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