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Comic-Con@Home: Paul Scheer and Gillian Jacobs tease Marvel's 616 anthology on Disney+

By Josh Weiss
Marvel's 616 logo

Hot on the heels of the first look we got yesterday, Disney+ brought a fresh glimpse of Marvel's 616 to Comic-Con@Home. With each episode told from the perspective of a different filmmaker, the eight-episode anthology docuseries explores the history and cultural impact of Marvel Comics.

The special panel (hosted by Marvel podcaster and SYFY WIRE correspondent Angélique Roché) featured appearances from directors Gillian Jacobs (Episode 2: "Higher, Further, Faster") and Paul Scheer (Episode 4: "Lost and Found"), as well as executive producers Sarah Amos and Jason Sterman.

Jacobs' episode is focused on Marvel's trailblazing female writers and their commitment to diversity and inclusion. In the sneak peek of Episode 2, Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson discuss the creation of Kamala Kahn/Ms. Marvel, who is getting her very own show on Disney+. Legendary editors/writers such as Ann Nocenti and Louise Simonson are covered, too.

"I inadvertently made a piece about the history of comics, not just Marvel," Jacobs joked, referring to the breadth of her endeavor. "I had to go back to the '20s, the '30s. There's so much in terms of things that happened in the comic book industry and then how that affected companies like Marvel ... the process of this documentary took me in a lot of different directions."

The Community actress/director also had the rare opportunity to film at the Marvel offices, a privilege that's only ever been given to a small group of people.

Scheer's episode, on the other hand, lovingly scrapes the bottom of the barrel to discover Marvel characters that may have fallen into obscurity over the years.

"For me, it was sort of saying, 'Yes, we know all these amazing characters that Marvel has in the front of their team-ups. We know the frontline [and] we even know the reserves. I'm talking about the people who are behind the scenes a little bit more,'" he explained. "That is what I was trying to tap into, is finding these connections that we have to these characters that maybe didn't get a chance to shine as brightly as they could've."

Watch the full panel below:

While we only know the subject matter of two episodes at this time, Sterman did make a point to emphasize that no two entries will be the same.

"You can walk from one edit room to the next as these things are being made and you'll hysterically laugh in one and bawl your eyes out in the next," he said.

"I'm excited to introduce different communities to people," Amos added. "Fandom has so many different ways to be experienced, whether it's cosplay or love of a specific character ... There are so many different ways that you can connect with Marvel. I'm just excited to put eight episodes out there and then start to talk to people [in order] to figure out which one connected with everyone."

Scheer closed things out by stating that the project "is a show that could go on for hundreds of episodes, simply because no one person has the same thing that they're interested in in that world. Even if you did five documentaries on Spider-Man, they could be from very different perspectives, and that's what I feel like Marvel has allowed us to do."

Marvel's 616 arrives on Disney+ sometime this fall.

Amos, Joe Quesada, Shane Rahmani, Stephen Wacker, John Cerilli, and Harry Go are all producing for Marvel. Sterman, Brian McGinn, and David Gelb produce on behalf of Supper Club.

Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of Comic-Con@Home 2020.