By Kendra Johnson, head of Distribution and Strategic Partnerships, Maker Studios
Our Marvel and Maker Studios teams announced our first co-produced original series, Marvel’s Off the Rack, available now on go90, a social-entertainment platform built for the mobile-first generation. The 12 episodes will air weekly through the end of June.
Disney, Maker Studios and Marvel came together for this project to collaborate on the individual strengths of each of its lines of business, and this series demonstrates the possibilities of what we can do when we work together.
The goal in producing this series for Maker Studios and Marvel was to not only celebrate the fandom and rich history of storytelling within the Marvel Universe, but also to expose a whole new generation of fans to comic books. When we initially examined the idea from a digital-first perspective, we thought: who better to tell these stories than the fans themselves? And what we found was a rich assortment of people from all walks of life who have long been fans.
With this is mind, the release of Marvel’s Off the Rack also demonstrates the power of digital in showcasing communities that were formerly seen as niche but now are part of mainstream pop-culture consciousness. There is a whole generation of people who only know Marvel from the Cinematic Universe, but in fact, Marvel was born from traditional comic books. It is telling of our times that a digital show is connecting new fans back to traditional storytelling.
At Maker Studios, one of the things we focus on when it comes to reaching our key audiences is delivering content in the way they consume it. We know that today’s consumers like options, and that they like to consume content wherever they are. Having the ability to share this kind of premium programming with them via go90 is fantastic, and we are excited for everyone to check it out via the go90 app.