The Marvel Cinematic Universe dominates entertainment with its interconnected films and TV series, crafting a long-running, cohesive story. In contrast, Marvel video games operate in isolated worlds, with each title telling a completely separate and unrelated story. For instance, Insomniac's Marvel’s Spider-Man series has no connection to Eidos-Montreal's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. Likewise, upcoming games like Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Marvel's Wolverine, and Marvel’s Blade lack any shared narrative links.
At one point, however, Disney explored the idea of creating a Marvel Gaming Universe—a cohesive world for Marvel games, mirroring the MCU's success with films and TV. So why did this ambitious plan never come to fruition?
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On The Fourth Curtain podcast, host Alexander Seropian and guest Alex Irvine—both involved in the project—discussed the concept of a Marvel Gaming Universe and shared why it was ultimately abandoned.
Seropian, a co-founder of Halo and Destiny developer Bungie, later headed Disney's video game division before departing in 2012. Irvine served as a longtime writer on Marvel games, most recently contributing world-building, dialogue, and character backstories for the hit Marvel Rivals.
While reflecting on his earlier Marvel projects, Irvine discussed the canceled MGU.
"When I first started working on Marvel games, there was this vision to create a Marvel gaming universe modeled after the MCU," Irvine recalled. "It just never materialized."
Seropian explained that the MGU was his "brainchild," but Disney executives never approved the necessary budget.
"During my time at Disney, that was my initiative—'Let's connect these games.' This was even before the MCU took off," Seropian said. "But we couldn't secure the funding."
Irvine, who had previously worked on the acclaimed Halo alternate reality game I Love Bees at Bungie, elaborated on how the MGU would have functioned.
"It was disappointing because we came up with so many creative ways to bring it to life," he shared.
"Coming from the world of ARGs, I thought, 'Wouldn't it be amazing to incorporate ARG elements?' We envisioned a shared hub that all games could connect to, allowing players to transition between them. We could integrate comics, launch original content—the possibilities were endless. But as Alex mentioned, without funding, it just wasn't possible. So we moved forward with standalone games."
Why did the MGU fail to gain internal support? Irvine suggested the concept grew so intricate that it eventually discouraged key decision-makers at Disney.
"Even back then, we were asking, 'How will the MGU differ from the comics? How will it stand apart from the movies? How do we maintain continuity?' I think those questions became so complex that some at Disney simply didn't want to tackle them," Irvine explained.
It’s intriguing to imagine what could have been if the Marvel Gaming Universe had received the green light. Perhaps Insomniac’s Spider-Man games would have shared a universe with Square Enix’s ill-fated Marvel's Avengers and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, with characters making cross-game appearances and storylines building toward an epic, Endgame-level event.
Looking forward, questions remain about Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine. Will it be set in the same universe as Marvel's Spider-Man? Could Spider-Man or other characters from those games appear in Wolverine?
For now, the Marvel Gaming Universe remains another abandoned video game concept. But in some alternate reality, maybe it became a reality after all…
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