A co-financing arrangement with Imax will allow ABC and Marvel to spend more to make “The Inhumans,” which will include cinema-quality visual effects. (One criticism of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” has been that certain action sequences are less than dazzling.) Imax has never before served as a financing participant in a TV series, according to Richard L. Gelfond, the company’s chief executive.

“We think this is a business for us,” Mr. Gelfond said of the financing arrangement. “Because Imax has an equity participation both in the pilot and in the series, this deal will be financially advantageous to Imax on an ongoing basis.”

Imax has dabbled in the past at showing TV content on its supersize screens. Last year, for instance, it played a couple of Season 4 episodes of “Game of Thrones.” But a series has never before made its debut through Imax, which has more than 1,000 locations worldwide.

“We see it as a way to extend the Imax brand and diversify our revenue,” Mr. Gelfond said.

In particular, he hopes television content could help draw crowds to Imax locations at times of the year — like fall — when there is a dearth of blockbuster-style movies. Imax worked for years to find a winning strategy for quieter times at the box office; most recently it tried showing films aimed at older audiences, which delivered weak results.

“We’re confident our exhibition partners will be excited about this,” Mr. Gelfond said. “The response from conceptual conversations has been extremely positive.”

Marvel, which has been on a box-office tear, initially expected to turn the Inhumans into a string of movies, even announcing its plans publicly in 2014. But the studio ultimately decided the property would be a better fit for TV, in part because there were already a lot of different Marvel movie franchises continuing.

Mr. Sherwood, noting pains have been taken to make sure ABC affiliates are on board with the Imax debut, said the “sneak peek” of “The Inhumans” would include “big, theatrical moments specially conceived for the Imax screen.” The series debut will also come at a time when no Marvel movies are playing in theaters.

“We’ve worked very carefully with our friends at Marvel Studios — and this is a critical point — to make sure that calendar-wise and content-wise we are only enhancing the Marvel universe,” he said.