7) Supporting Characters Are Much More Essential
While the impressive impact of supporting roles in the Marvel shows is helped by some great performances, there’s no denying that good writing has also contributed to their success. Maybe it’s an effect of elongated stories being told in the series format, but the supporting characters in these shows feel so much more essential than any in the MCU movies have.
Think of how the role of Claire Temple, once helpful nurse to injured Matt Murdock and now key connector of dots, has become a running thread to humanize and ground the heroes through the stories leading up to The Defenders. Claire is the obvious example, of course, but there are numerous others playing similar parts on smaller scales. Most recently, we had a great reminder of these characters as the events of The Defenders thrust them all together in danger, forcing us to truly recognize the stakes. Thinking about losing some of them would have been upsetting, proving just how important they’ve become alongside their heroes.
With the likes of Natalie Portman’s Jane dropping out of the Thor series completely, or Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts stepping in and out of the MCU willy-nilly, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the friends and loved ones of the heroes on the big screen. They may add some relevance or context while they’re there, but is anyone really missing them when they’re gone?