Here’s How ‘Helstrom’ Is Connected to the Marvel Universe

Hulu’s new series Helstrom has a few things going for it. It’s a horror series premiering in the spookiest month of the year, for one. The other thing may be a surprise to some: it’s a Marvel TV show! Yeah, this horror series about the children of a serial killer performing exorcisms and fighting back demons is part of the same universe as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Runaways (and the Netflix shows and maybe even the movies and…).

But how connected is Helstrom really? After all, the show went from being titled Marvel’s Helstrom to just regular ol’ Helstrom, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find the word “Marvel” or “shared universe” in any of the official wording surrounding the series! What gives? Is Helstrom still a Marvel show? Is it connected to any of the other Marvel TV shows? Is it a must-watch for Marvel completists, or is it more for those who want something horrific to binge in October?

Is Helstrom connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

No. Okay—done! Moving on!

Okay okay okay—we’ll dig a little deeper here. Helstrom is connected to the other shows produced by the now-defunct Marvel Television through one word and one word only: Roxxon. There’s a shot of a Roxxon gas station in the first episode of Helstrom and eagle-eyed Marvel fans will recognize that brand from other Marvel shows, most notably Marvel’s Runways and Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger. The company has also been referenced in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel’s Agent Carter, and briefly in the Iron Man movies.

Overall, that’s about it for Marvel references in Helstrom. The show is primarily set in Portland, which is clear across the country from New York City and Los Angeles, the primary two locations of most Marvel action. There are no mentions of “the big green guy” or “the devil of Hell’s Kitchen” or “a bunch of kids with powers in LA” or anything. As far as the characters in Helstrom are concerned, they’re the only characters with any connection to anything superhuman, inhuman, or abnormal. So that might have you wondering…

Why isn’t Helstrom more connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

I hate to break it to you, but Marvel was lying to you—and me!—for years by claiming that all their shows were connected. The truth is that the feature films—always produced by Marvel Studios—were never going to directly crossover with any of the TV shows—produced by Marvel Television, a totally different company. Sure, some movie actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Jaimie Alexander appeared in early seasons of S.H.I.E.L.D. and two movie stars—Clark Gregg and Hayley Atwell—got their own shows, but the movies were never concerned with what was happening on ABC or Netflix. And towards the end, even S.H.I.E.L.D. ignored what happened in the movies—including major moments like the Snapture. In the 7 years since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted, there has been precisely one significant connection between Marvel Television and the Marvel Studios movies—and it didn’t happen until Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

All the Marvel TV shows existed in their own pockets, usually defined by the networks they aired on. S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter crossed over, but they never went near the interconnected Netflix shows. And while Hulu’s Runaways and Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger did jump networks to meet up, neither set of teens ever hung out with Spider-Man or his amazing friends.

So no, Helstrom—even when it was titled Marvel’s Helstrom—was most likely never going to reference Doctor Strange or the Ancient One or Nico Minoru. Even the Marvel part of its title was dropped over the summer to distance Helstrom from its comic book roots. It’s presumed that parent company Disney didn’t want fans to check out this horror show expecting to see the fun quips and colorful superheroic antics of, say, Ant-Man.

Will Helstrom have spinoffs? Are more Marvel horror shows on the way?

Well, they were on the way… but not anymore. After Marvel Television’s relationship with Netflix came to a rather abrupt halt, it seemed like Hulu was going to be the next home of a connected set of Marvel shows. This time, all the shows would be built around horror properties, with Helstrom and Ghost Rider as the first in what was going to be a whole slate dubbed Adventure into Fear. That didn’t happen. The Ghost Rider series was nixed by Hulu a few months later, and then Marvel Television itself completely folded along with the departure of its president, Jeph Loeb. Runaways was canceled, Cloak and Dagger was canceled, Legion ended, The Gifted was canceled, S.H.I.E.L.D. wrapped up its run, and Helstrom is the last live-action series standing. It should be noted, there is still a M.O.D.O.K. animated series coming to Hulu in 2021, the last survivor of an otherwise completely scrapped lineup of animated shows.

Making matters even more grim for Helstrom, the larger Marvel brand has totally moved on. The beginning of the end for Marvel Television came when Marvel Studios announced it would be making original TV shows for Disney+ starring the A-list movie star superheroes. There are plenty of Marvel series on the way, with WandaVision debuting on Disney+ later this year and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier coming in 2021.

But those shows, which actually will be connected to the movies, have nothing to do with Marvel Television or Helstrom at all. The company has moved on.

So no, there will be no more Adventure into Fear shows. Helstrom will stand alone—and to be quite honest, it seems highly unlikely that there’ll be a Season 2 considering the scorched earth approach to all of Marvel Television’s properties. Helstrom is a holdover from a completely different era. It has no companion series, no peers, not even a production company. If you want to see more Marvel horror, you’ll most likely have to wait until Marvel Studios gets back on track producing more feature films. The Doctor Strange sequel and the new Blade can’t come soon enough.

Stream Helstrom on Hulu