WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki are more than just ways to keep Marvel fans engaged in between films. The way the shows have been set up has redefined the MCU going forward.

There were two approaches Marvel could have taken to the stand-alone Disney+ shows. They could have been just enjoyable little vignettes, moments in time featuring characters fans were already familiar with, or characters they were hoping to introduce. That would have been the easier approach. Instead, Marvel chose route number two, that of making the Disney+ shows integral to the fabric of the MCU going forward. And the universe they have created will probably be better off because of that decision.

RELATED: Loki Uses Orwellian Influences To Unmask The TVA

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier was meant to be the first show out the gate, and though, essentially, its job is to set up the journey of Sam from just possessing the shield to becoming Captain America, it ended up doing a lot more. The show also set up the Dora Milaje as a force that, as Ayo very clearly stated, “have jurisdiction wherever the Dora Milaje find themselves to be.” Plus, it established the US government, once again, as less than a force for good than Sam Wilson would have wanted to believe.

Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

The show also introduced new characters who are set to play an important role going forward, like Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine. Fans should have met Val – though no one can call her that out loud – much earlier, but with the postponement of Black Widow, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier ended up being her intro into the MCU.

All of those are big picture kinds of things, that go beyond just developing Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes as characters, which the show also does. In fact, in treating the show like a six-part movie, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier never truly slows down enough to focus on all the possibilities it raises. Instead, the show focuses on showing us more about Sam and Bucky and following the progress of their relationship. It never tries to examine the implications it raises about the government or even about some old, familiar characters, like Sharon Carter. That’s left for another time.

WandaVision, on the other hand, focuses less on the big-picture and more on telling a self-contained story about grief involving two characters, which might be why it resonated more with viewers. That isn’t to say WandaVision is just about those things. The introduction of Wanda and Vision’s kids, Billy and Tommy, is clear Young Avengers setup. Monica Rambeau’s storyline is the perfect setup for The Marvels. And the evolution of Wanda’s powers is leading to what we know is coming in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

WandaVision episode 8 featured Cropped

Loki, on the other hand, went even bigger than the previous two series, with what appears to be the literal creation of the multiverse. We’re likely to see the ramifications of what the show set up both in Spiderman: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But Loki also proved that it is possible to tell alternate stories with the same characters and have fans invest in them. The Loki in the series might not be the one whose journey people followed to Avengers: Infinity War, but that doesn’t mean fans don’t care. With the multiverse a reality and the certainty that any character can be brought back for an alternate story, is there anything Marvel can’t attempt?

With shows like Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, and others bringing up a new generation of heroes, Marvel was smart to use the first batch of Disney+ shows not just to further develop characters we already know, but to tie the shows to the overall fabric of the MCU. That means that going forward, Disney+ shows can be used to set up bigger events. It also means characters can transition not just from film to the small screen, but vice versa. The first test of this will come with the Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels, which is set to feature both Monica Rambeau and Ms. Marvel.

Loki Episode 3

The MCU isn’t what it was when it first started, and that’s a good thing not just for fans, but for a universe that wasn’t exactly going stale, but that was still in need of a change. Comic books have always stayed one step – or sometimes twenty – ahead of readers, and Marvel has found an easy way to do the same by combining both full-length features and Disney+ shows, and weaving stories between the two mediums. This will allow Marvel to take some risks, bring in some new and hopefully diverse characters, and also focus more on the relationships between characters that might not have had such an easier time crossing over during movies. All things fans will truly appreciate, and that give the MCU new and exciting possibilities going forward.

MORE: Breaking Down Loki's First Post-Credits Scene And What It Means Going Forward