Creators of “Marvel’s 616” Discuss Some of the Show’s Topics During PaleyFest Fall TV Previews Panel

Marvel’s 616 is a new anthology docuseries coming to Disney+ in November. Some of the creators of the upcoming new series sat down to discuss what we can expect to see during the PaleyFest Fall TV Previews.

  • The PaleyFest panel features:
    • Director Alison Brie
    • Director David Gelb
    • Executive Producer Sarah Amos
    • Executive Producer Jason Sterman
  • Marvel’s 616 explores Marvel’s rich legacy of pioneering characters, creators and storytelling to reflect the world outside your window. Each documentary, helmed by a unique filmmaker, showcases the intersections of storytelling, pop culture, and fandom within the Marvel Universe. Episodes in this anthology series will cover topics including Marvel’s world-spanning artists, the trailblazing women of Marvel Comics, discovering the “forgotten” characters of Marvel, and much more.
  • Brie’s episode focuses on the Marvel Spotlight program, which helps to craft plays for high school students.
  • “These plays are adapted from Marvel’s characters in the known Marvel universe but they are written specifically for high school-aged kids and, you know, the characters are that age too,” Brie said of her episode. “Kamala Kahn is in high school, Squirrel Girl is going to college, that’s the name of the play, ‘Squirrel Girl Goes to College.’ So they are dealing with things that they can really relate to in a concrete way.”
  • Going in a completely different direction, Gelb’s episode focuses on a lost Japanese Spider-Man series.
  • “The Japanese creators of the show threw out basically everything about Spider-Man except for the costume and the powers and some of the strongest themes from it, which remain,” Gelb says of the old series. “[They] gave Spider-Man a super fast car, gave him a giant robot from outer space, gave him an intergalactic origin story, a whole new cast of characters to fight and perhaps the first ever giant robot that transforms back and forth from a spaceship and such.”
  • With the series taking on such wildly different topics, Sterman touched on how each episode is influenced by the creative team putting it together.
  • “By the nature of the documentary format being able to tell the stories about real people, there’s real people who are behind the camera as well, bringing their version of what this is to the screen,” Sterman said. “So, you know, every single director who has done one of these episodes, they’re infused into the story as well.
  • Finally, Amos explained the title of the new series, saying “For those who know the multiverse, Earth 616 is the Earth we all live on.”
  • “From the get-go, the whole idea of this series is, how can we make sure people connect with Marvel and our stories and our characters and see themselves reflected in what it is we try to do every day when we show up to work,” she explained.

  • Marvel’s 616 debuts on Disney+ on November 20.
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