Recently came reports that Marvel Studios’ nine-episode series “Agatha All Along” is the cheapest show the company has made for Disney+ to date. It’s a report that Marvel Studios’ head of streaming, television and animation, Brad Winderbaum, has now confirmed. Speaking with , he says: “It’s our least expensive show, and I think that was by design”.
Winderbaum didn’t go into numbers, but this confirms the show falls behind “Hawkeye” spinoff “Echo” which came in at a reported budget of around $8 million an episode. A big reason for the cost-effectiveness is a reliance on practical effects over the use of computer animation, and by doing so it offers the writers and producers more creative freedom: “We are looking to make these shows for a responsible cost. Frankly, it gives us a little bit more freedom creatively when we can bring them in at a reasonable budget.
Like [‘Agatha All Along’], for example, the show has minimal CG, way less than we’ve ever done before. It’s mostly practical effects, and I think you can feel it in the show.” Every streamer is adopting a more cost-conscious approach these days as streamers and networks reign in runaway budgets.
Marvel, especially, was regularly spending as much as $25 million per episode on series – a number unheard of even a few years ago. Winderbaum adds that the new frugal approach “certainly holds true with ‘Daredevil’ and our future slate as we look down the pike at 2026 and 2027. That.