Since the launch of Disney+ in November 2019, we have been lucky to receive many new Star Wars and Marvel original series. The Mandalorian became a cultural phenomenon that now includes three seasons and multiple spinoffs, while Andor Season 1 earned nearly universal critical acclaim.
As for Marvel, WandaVision remains one of the most creative and compelling stories in the franchise's history. Marvel's several Disney+ series have enabled many wonderful characters from the comics to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel and Kate Bishop.
Nearly five years since Disney+'s debut, I have enjoyed many of the streaming platform's Star Wars and MCU originals. At the same time, I have realized that the Star Wars series are generally superior to the Marvel ones for several reasons.
More consistent quality
While quality inevitably differs between projects, all of the Star Wars Disney+ originals have generally been well-made and highly entertaining. The quality of Marvel's Disney+ series is far more inconsistent, ranging from the wonderful WandaVision to the mediocre The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the painfully bad Secret Invasion. No matter what you think the worst Star Wars Disney+ series is, it is still significantly better than Secret Invasion, along with several of the other MCU shows.
Part of that more consistent quality comes from the fact that Disney+'s Star Wars shows tend to get more time to tell their stories than Marvel does. The Bad Batch had three seasons, each consisting of 15-16 episodes. The Clone Wars Season 7 and Andor Season 1 each had twelve episodes, as will Andor season 2. The Mandalorian has had three seasons, with eight episodes per season.
Most of the Marvel Disney+ series have six episodes per season, and only Loki and What If...? have received more than a single season. The longest season so far is X-Men '97 at ten episodes, and the series is not part of the MCU continuity.
WandaVision, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and What If...? each had nine episodes per season, but the rest of the MCU series only had six, except for Echo, which only had five. The Star Wars series generally get more narrative breathing room, which generally leads to better character development and more rewarding payoff.
The relationship between the shows and movies
With both Star Wars and Marvel being expansive multimedia franchises, it can be difficult to balance all the various stories and mediums. When it comes to the Disney+ series, Star Wars is doing a better job of ensuring each of its series can stand on its own merits and not become prerequisite viewing for a future project.
While WandaVision told a bold and beautiful story on its own, it also existed to set up Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, just as WandaVision and the refreshing Ms. Marvel partly existed to set up The Marvels. The same appears to be true with the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World. Sam Wilson's journey to becoming Captain America has already happened in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. If you did not watch the aforementioned Disney+ series before watching the Doctor Strange sequel or The Marvels, you were missing huge chunks of backstory and character development.
Some of these series are also left feeling incomplete as the characters' arcs are left purposely unfinished so they can be continued in different projects, sometimes years later. This was most glaring with Wanda Maximoff, who felt like a completely different character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness than she did in WandaVision due to the different visions of the creators behind the respective movie and series.
This is, so far, not an issue with Star Wars. For example, there are numerous connections between Andor and Rogue One, and watching all of Andor before Rogue One will likely make it an even better movie. Still, the Disney+ series is certainly not required viewing. The same goes for The Mandalorian and the sequel trilogy or The Acolyte and the prequels or High Republic novels.
To be fair, this is partly because the only Star Wars movie since Disney+'s launch was The Rise of Skywalker, which was released before The Mandalorian Season 1 even ended. The same issue could arise with The Mandalorian being necessary viewing before The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Fortunately, this likely won't be the case, as Season 1 already proved that great Din Djarin and Grogu stories can be told through an adventure-of-the-week format, which is part of what made The Mandalorian so accessible in the first place.
More variety with time periods
One of my favorite aspects of the Star Wars Disney+ series is that they take place in many different eras. The Mandalorian begins about five years after Return of the Jedi, with The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the upcoming Skeleton Crew all occurring in the same era.
The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor are all set between the prequel and original trilogy. The Acolyte and Young Jedi Adventures go back to the High Republic era, a time period that not long ago was only in books and comics. Every episode of the non-canon Star Wars: Visions is in a different era, while Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire span from the prequels to The Mandalorian Season 2.
Most of Marvel's Disney+ stories are set during the years directly after Avengers: Endgame. This is made more frustrating by the fact that many of these stories ignore or barely acknowledge the Blip. However, WandaVision and Hawkeye deserve credit for incorporating the impact of the Blip in meaningful ways.
With Loki and What If...? jumping around the multiverse, they do go beyond the post-Endgame timeline, but the majority of the shows are stuck in this period. I prefer the variety in the timeline of the Star Wars series, and I am glad that this will continue with the upcoming movies that span from the time period of The Mandalorian to 25,000 years before The Phantom Menace and 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker.
I am looking forward to Agatha All Along, Daredevil: Born Again, and some of the other upcoming Marvel series. However, I have been more impressed and am more optimistic about the Star Wars Disney+ originals than Marvel's.