More of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will soon be one big happy family living under a single roof, as Netflix’s Marvel Defenders shows — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders — are going to leave Netflix and make their way over to Disney Plus. Entertainment Weekly reported the news.
According to EW, the rights to Netflix’s Marvel original series have reverted back to Disney, though EW says that a Disney rep did not immediately respond to a request to comment. Fans apparently began noticing these shows had a note attached to them saying “This show is available until March 1.” EW says it independently confirmed that this was the case for all six shows.
However, there is no information on when Daredevil, Jessica Jones or the rest of the shows will make their debut on Disney Plus.
Here’s a brief history lesson on Netflix’s Marvel shows. Disney and Netflix previously partnered together to expand the MCU beyond its movies with multiple shows centered around these New York City-based superheroes that together are known as The Defenders. It all began in 2015 with Daredevil, starring Charlie Cox as the titular hero; then with Krysten Ritter in Jessica Jones; Mike Colter in Luke Cage; Finn Jones in Iron Fist; and Jon Bernthal in The Punisher (getting his own original series after debuting in season 2 of Daredevil). All but Bernthal would then team up in one season of a The Defenders series. All of the shows were cancelled in 2018.
Disney Plus, which came onto the scene in 2019, has debuted its own Marvel original TV shows, including WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye and has the upcoming Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and more. But even before news that the Netflix shows were heading to Disney Plus, Marvel has been bringing the characters into recent MCU projects.
Charlie Cox returned as Matt Murdock with a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Then Vincent D’Onofrio reprised his role as Kingpin, which he originally played in Daredevil, as the big bad in Hawkeye. Whether or not Rytter’s Jessica Jones, Colter’s Luke Cage or any of the other characters from the Netflix Marvel shows will pop up in future projects is still undetermined, but Cox hinted that there could be more Daredevil on the way.
When The Defenders do find their way to Disney Plus, the streaming service will have nearly all of the movies and TV shows associated with the MCU. Among the remaining holdouts are Tom Holland’s standalone Spider-Man movies, which have complicated rights as they are a co-production between Marvel and Sony Pictures.
