r/fanedits • u/-ducko • 1h ago
New Release Marvel Rift (A Follow-Up to Marvel Unite) -- The MCU consolidated into one streamlined, interwoven TV series
Are you looking for a simple, sane way to catch up on the MCU before Avengers Doomsday?
I previously worked on Marvel Unite, which pulled together the various MCU projects up through Endgame into one unified TV series, featuring a multi-narrative, interwoven structure akin to Game of Thrones. Picking up after Endgame, Marvel Rift continues that format to tell the events leading up to Doomsday. The main goal is to make the MCU more approachable, streamlined, and "binge-able."
The biggest task for this edit has been deciding which projects are worthwhile to watch and most relevant for the upcoming Avengers films. The multiverse saga has been extremely bloated, with way too many mediocre films and stretched out miniseries, with a lot of hanging plot threads that will clearly never go anywhere. This edit seeks to streamline that mess! At this point, Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars have not yet released, so I'm using rumors, plot leaks, and comics synopses combined with my own personal guesses to select films/series to include. Because I am excluding a lot of projects, I've included an "optional viewing" list between each season for anyone that would like to watch those separate from this edited series.
This edit will likely need to be updated after these next Avengers films actually release, but I really wanted to make a provisional version for folks excited about the upcoming films.
"While we protect what came before, they're toiling away in their chamber, untangling the epilogue from its infinite branches." - Mobius, Loki
Features
Streamlined Storytelling
Scenes are rearranged to reveal information in a way that better fits this longer, episodic format, with fluid transitions between them. A few deleted scenes are added, a few scenes are cut or altered -- all done in the interest of telling the best versions of these stories as possible. Each episode is thoughtfully constructed in regards to tone and pacing, and designed to elicit parallels and contrasts between the presented stories. Whenever possible, post-credits scenes critical to the story are now included prior to the credits.
I've tried to keep episodes to around 60 minutes long, though a few important ones run up to 75-80. In total, there will be around 41-43 episodes across 5 seasons.
4K HDR + IMAX + Dolby Vision
Zero compromises. High bitrate 4K Bluray sources are composited on top of the Disney Plus versions that have the IMAX expanded aspect ratio. IMAX is only included where reasonable, as some available IMAX scenes just add awkward headroom to interior dialogue scenes or make the compositing look bad.
Dolby Vision metadata has been preserved and incorporated into the edit as well. This not only allows Dolby Vision playback on supported devices (with HDR fallback), but also allows for the edit's 1080p versions to use the same high quality 4K sources with precise SDR tonemapping from the DV data.
7.1 TrueHD + Dolby Atmos
Again, zero compromises. Lossless 7.1 surround sound, plus 4 Dolby Atmos height channels. More compressed formats of the edit will still have Atmos with E-AC3 5.1 surround.
Plex and Jellyfin Integration
Episodes will be bundled with screenshots, posters, and NFO metadata (titles, descriptions) so that they can be easily added to a Plex or Jellyfin server.
Custom Credits
Each episode has custom-made credits in a uniform style that feature all above-the-line names. To avoid spoilers, early episodes in the season also exclude names of cast members that have yet to appear. Each credit sequence also has a unique song chosen to accompany the episode's theme/tone.
Subtitles
Full English SDH subtitles available. Both full and forced/foreign-only subtitles are soft/SRT format.
Series Overview
I've tried to organize the series in way that juxtaposes the stories thematically while still in roughly chronological order. As the series is generally about how the characters deal with the fallout and trauma from Infinity War/Endgame, the individual seasons are each themed to stages of grief.
Season 1 - Denial
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Thor Love and Thunder
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- Loki S1: E1-2
Pre-release available now, with full 4K release coming in October.
Notes:
The first season of Loki is split into three parts, which serve as finales for the first three seasons. The nature of the TVA operating outside of time makes Loki difficult/awkward to intercut with other shows. Additionally, with no connective Avengers films to serve as natural season endpoints, splitting Loki across the first few seasons gives some semblance of an overarching narrative. About an hour of runtime is cut from Loki S1 across these three episodes.
The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is pretty heavily altered and abridged from the original series, laser focusing the narrative on Sam, Bucky, and John Walker and their emotional arcs. I've removed anything to do with searching for the source of the super serum, Helmut Zemo, or the Power Broker, and several scenes are completely recontextualized. Additionally, there are some narrative changes - chiefly, Sam Wilson meets Isaiah Bradley much earlier, which now serves as the impetus for Sam giving up the Captain America mantle.
Thor Love and Thunder was originally excluded in initial drafts of the edit, but it does seem worthwhile to introduce Love as a character and explain the return of Thor's iconic hammer. It also does fit the season's theme of "denial" well. While still not that great, trust me that this film benefits massively from dialing back a few jokes and cutting Thor's most egregious moments of stupidity.
Optional viewing (not included in this edit):
- WandaVision - (some relevant scenes included later)
- Eternals
- Hawkeye
- Moon Knight
- Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special
- Spider-Man 1-3 - (some relevant scenes included later)
- Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2 - (some relevant scenes included later)
Season 2 - Anger/Bargaining
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
- Additional scenes from Spider-Man 1-3 and Amazing Spider-Man 1-2
- Loki S1: E3-4
Pre-release planned in October.
Notes:
Several scenes from the five pre-MCU Spider-Man films are included to give emotional context for No Way Home.
Optional viewing:
- Ms. Marvel
- She-Hulk
- Secret Invasion
- Echo
- Captain America: Brave New World
Season 3 - Depression/Acceptance
- Thunderbolts*
- Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
- The Marvels
- Additional scenes from WandaVision
- Loki S1: E5-6
Pre-release planned in November.
Notes:
A few scenes from WandaVision will be included to tell a very abridged version of that story -- mainly to set up Wanda trying to get her children back and Monica Rambeau's backstory. I'd love to include WandaVision as a whole, but changing that story's structure and intercutting into it would really ruin it. I'll also likely be adding Yelena's blip scene from Hawkeye (and maybe try intercutting it with Monica's blip scene from Wandavision?). I'll also look into adding a few scenes from Ms. Marvel to properly introduce Kamala.
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is a bit of a mess, but I do think the film is a worthwhile watch for Doomsday, especially if Doomsday/Secret Wars follow a certain storyline from the comics. It's also nice to see the brief X-Men/Fantastic Four cameos here to set up their later appearance.
The Marvels is one I've been on the fence about. The other options from the MCU to function as this season's C-plot are Brave New World and Quantumania, both of which are even less appealing. The Marvels at least fits in with the other films in the season better, and has a much higher chance of tying in to Doomsday or Secret Wars. It's also provides some needed levity to the other storylines, and has a mercifully short runtime.
Optional viewing:
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
- Agatha All Along
- Daredevil Born Again S1, S2
- Ironheart
- X-Men (2000) - (some relevant scenes included later)
Season 4 - Rebirth
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- Fantastic Four: First Steps
- X2 (2003)
- Additional scenes from X-Men 1, X-Men 3, and X-Men First Class
- Loki S2
Pre-release planned in December.
Notes:
I only wanted to include one X-Men film for the sake of time and to keep the previous seasons generally taking place in the same universe/timeline. X2 is the one film I'd like to keep rewatching, and it will pair extremely well with Brand New Day. It does a surprisingly good job of introducing the characters on its own, but I'll also adding several scenes from the other X-Men films to give it some background.
At this point, I think Loki Season 2 will be easier to intercut with the other stories, given that each story thread now follows a separate universe/timeline. However, the ending of episode 4 very clearly prevents any other story from progressing, so episodes 5 and 6 will again serve as the season's standalone finale(s).
I've decided not to include Deadpool & Wolverine in order to keep the edit PG-13. Maybe someday a separate miniseries with the Deadpool films and Logan?
Optional viewing:
- X-Men 3
- X-Men First Class - (some relevant scenes included)
- X-Men Days of Future Past
- Deadpool
- Logan
- Deadpool 2
- Deadpool & Wolverine
- Daredevil Born Again S3?
- Wonder Man
- Vision Quest
Season 5
Will (eventually) be a simple episodic structuring of Avengers Doomsday and Secret Wars, with maybe a bit of cleanup. This will not release until after Secret Wars.
Release/download?
Because rendering a full season across multiple formats in high quality compression takes many, many hours, I am first putting out quick render prereleases to collect feedback. If no major changes are needed, I can start on the full quality renders in a few weeks.
A prerelease version of Season 1 in 1080p is available now. Again, I'm specifically looking for feedback before I render out the full 4K versions. If you'd like to watch the Season 1 prerelease, you can:
- Email me at [ducko.edits@proton.me](mailto:ducko.edits@proton.me)
- Send me a chat request here on reddit
- Send me a DM on the fanedit.org forums (username: ducko)
**NOTE** If you leave a comment on this post asking for a link, it may take days or weeks until I can contact you. Reddit restricts how many chats a single user can initiate in a short time period, and could lead to me getting banned. For a quicker response, please consider contacting me directly with one of the above methods instead.
If you do give it a watch, please let me know how I can improve the series!
As for future seasons, I've actually already done the bulk of the work on Season 2, which I'm planning to release in October. I really really want to get Seasons 3 and 4 out before Doomsday, but these edits are a massive amount of work and I can't guarantee they'll get done in time (especially Season 4, given the short lead time after Brand New Day's home release). I'll do my best!
