While promoting Echo, Brad Winderbaum, Head of Streaming, Television and Animation Marvel Studios stirred up quite a bit of buzz when he shared his thoughts on if the events from the various Netflix Dedenders-verse series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and The Punisher) took place onthe MCU’s Sacred Timeline.
“So, I can say that up until this point, we’ve been a little bit cagey about what’s Sacred Timeline and what’s not,” said Winderbaum. “That was born, frankly, out of a period at the studio where we were like ‘we have to stick the landing with Avengers.’ It was another part of the company developing the Netflix stuff; we were aware of what they were doing, they were aware of what we were doing, but it was a lot.. it was a lot to balance anyway,” he explained. “But now that some time has passed, now that we actually see how well-integrated the stories are, I personally, Brad Winderbaum, will confidently say that they are part of the Sacred Timeline.” And it was that last bit that left enough wiggle room available to keep the debate alive of whether or not those series, which were not produced by Marvel Studios should be considered as Sacred Timeline canon. Now it seems like the debate is settled.
Accompanying the release of Echo, the studio’s first Marvel Spotlight production and its first TV-MA offering, the studio made massive changes to the Timeline Order subsection of the Marvel Studios channel on Disney Plus. Though it’s not yet updated in all regions, the studio has retroactively placed all 161 episodes of the Netflix series in the Infinity Saga.
Daredevil and Jessica Jones are now located between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders are now placed between Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War. And, finally, The Punisher is shown to be set after Spider-Man: Homecoming and before Doctor Strange.
The changes have wreaked some havoc on the streaming service and it seems quite a few bugs are still being worked out.
