In March 2023, a report indicated that Ryan Coogler was developing an animated series for Disney Plus called The Golden City. In December 2023, at a press event for Season 2 of What If…?, head of streaming, television and animation for Marvel Studios, Brad Winderbaum, revealed that the series, now called Eyes of Wakanda, was set to stream in 2024.
Throughout Wakandan history, brave warriors have been tasked to travel the world retrieving dangerous vibranium artifacts. This is their story
The (less than) great debate is over: Marvel Television’s Netflix Dedenders-verse series have been revealed to have taken place on the MCU’s Sacred Timeline. That means that though nobody at Marvel Studios was involved with the creative choices made over the course of 13 total seasons, they’ve decided to retcon them into the Infinity Saga. And so major moments like the War for New York, the War for Harlem and Wilson Fisk’s arrest following his fight with Daredevil at the Presidential Hotel all took place between the events of Captain America: The Winter Solider and Avengers: Infinity War. With that now the case, we look at the best and worst parts of the Netflix series that are now MCU canon.
The Good
Krysten Ritter IS Jessica Jones
As great as Jon Bernthal, Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio were in their respective roles, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Krysten Ritter portraying Jessica Jones. There have been plenty of rumors of Jones returning for projects such as Echo and Daredevil: Born Again but so far, nothing has come of those. The latest in the long line of scoops has her joining the cast of Spider-Man 4 and siding with Spidey, DD and more in a “street-level Civil War” against Kingpin. Get Ritter back in the torn jeans and leather jacket and get her in the Multiverse Saga!
Misty Knight
Simone Missick’s Misty Knight was by far one of the best supporting characters to appear in the Netflix series. While that rumored Daughters of the Dragon series may never get off the ground, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing left for Misty to do. In fact, it might be the perfect time for the character to jump into the Multiverse Saga and team up with another one of her frequent comic book collaborators: Sam Wilson. In the comics, the two have been in a romantic relationship for quite some time as they’ve worked through some of the many issues Sam has faced as Captain America. In this case, the timing couldn’t be any better with Sam about to make his big screen debut as Cap in Captain America: Brave New World.
K’un-Lun Can Be Redeemed
While any effort to include Danny Rand in an MCU project would have to start with recasting Finn Jones, the Netflix series didn’t do any damage to K’un-Lun that can’t be undone. The end of Season 2 of Iron Fist set the stage for the third season to adapt Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction‘s absolutely epic run on The Immortal Iron Fist and if there’s any other Iron Fist story that NEEDS to be told, it’s that one. Almost certainly better told episodically, any adaptation of that series could explore the long history of the hidden city and its protectors, introduce the other Capital Cities of Heaven and the fascinating characters associated with them such as Fat Cobra, The Prince of Orphans and Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter. As wehave already noted, Marvel Studios has already established the idea of hidden cities in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings which should only provide an even easier retconning of K’un-Lun into the Multiverse Saga.
The Bad
Typhoid Mary
Though plenty of the Man Without Fear’s antagonists are still out there waiting to be brought to justice, it’s tough to swallow that Alice Eve‘s version of Typhoid Mary is canon. It’s not to say that she can’t find her way back as an upgraded version of herself but making her just a highly trained soldier rather than loading her up with her comic book psionic power set was a disappointing move.
Danny Rand
This isn’t necessarily yet another in a long line of knocks against Finn Jones… though it may sure sound like it. Jones‘ talent as an actor aside, Danny Rand was easily the most poorly written of the Defenders. Impulsive, reckless and–in the words of Sowande–“the dumbest Iron Fist yet.” While it was certainly intentionally built in as a character flaw, Rand’s blatant stupidity was fully displayed when he allowed himself to be manipulated by Elektra in Midland Circle. Danny Rand is an idiot and the character deserves better. And the issue of the character’s idiotic nature doesn’t even address the fact that as the Immortal Iron Fist, Rand should have been one of the world’s best hand-to-hand combatants–capable of defeating multiple enemies at once without breaking a sweat. Instead, he often found himself having to rely on the glowy fist to beat up baddies.
The Ugly
The Hand
The Hand was a prominent threat in the Defenders-verse until finally being defeated by the Defenders beneath Midland Circle. However, nothing showed the Netflix series’ lack of deference to the comics more than the way they handled the ancient organization. A clan of zombie ninjas that worship an ancient demon known as The Beast is a can’t-miss concept…and Netflix missed terribly. There’s some hope that the ancient cult could be done right in the MCU but it seems more likely that they’ll never be heard from again, joining AIM as victims of the worst live-action interpretations of a Marvel Comics organization.
Repeat Casting
In Season 1 of Luke Cage, Mahershala Ali’s Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes ran the Stokes Crime Family from Harlem’s Paradise. Over two seasons of Luke Cage, Alfre Woodard‘s Mariah Dillard, Cottomouth’s cousin, served as the primary antagonist of Harlem’s Hero for Hire. Both Ali and Woodard gave powerful, inspired and unforgettable performances in their respective roles–arguably among the best of any talent that worked on the Netflix series. That already made it hard to see Woodard in a different role in Captain America: Civil War and it will make it even harder to see Ali as another main character when Blade finally hits theaters. While it’s likely true that many fans who turn out to see Blade may not have watched a second of Luke Cage, adding it to the MCU timeline on Disney Plus increases the possibility that more folks will and ultimately have questions about Ali’s dual roles.
While Marvel Studios will only have one film in theaters and two live-action series on Disney Plus in 2024, it may end up being one of the studio’s busiest ever on the production side. Production is scheduled to restart on a pair of recently retooled streaming series, Wonder Man (indeed, cameras are already rolling again on this one!) and Daredevil: Born Again, in early 2024. Principal photography is also scheduled for at least four films with Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four and Blade all on the docket. Throw in the potential for cameras to roll on Avengers 5, which is being written by Loki Season 1 and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness scribe Michael Waldron, at some point late in the year and it becomes clear Kevin Feige and crew are going to be busy. However, there’s some important business left to attend to for each of those projects before production can get underway. In the case of Thunderbolts, which is expected to start filming in just a few months, there’s a super-sized hole in the ensemble cast.
According to insider Daniel RPK, Austin Abrams–who portrayed Ron Anderson in 9 episodes over parts of Seasons 5 and 6 of The Walking Dead–has been offered the role of Sentry in Thunderbolts.
Abrams‘ work as Ethan Lewis on HBO’s Euphoria has drawn significant praise and the young actor has already shown an impressive range in his relatively short career. Should he indeed land the role of junkie-turned-Super Soldier Bob Reynolds, it’ll provide another opportunity to showcase his talents and land a potentially major recurring role.
In October 2023, Marvel Studios published The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline. Featuring a foreword by the studio’s One Above All, Kevin Feige, the book was said to be “the go-to resource for fans who are hoping to connect the dots and truly understand the complex web of interconnections between the different Marvel movies and television series.” While fans seemed to clearly understand that films that were not made by Marvel Studios were not part of the MCU’s so-called Sacred Timeline, there was much less clarity on where television series that were also no made by Marvel Studios stood. And so, projects such as the ABC melodrama Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hulu’s Runaways and the 13 seasons of the Defenders-verse series that streamed on Netflix from 2015-2019 have always been the subject of online debate. When none of those series were included in The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline, fans believed they had some clarity…and then Brad Winderbaum, Head of Streaming, Television and Animation at Marvel Studios shared his belief that the events of the Netflix series took place on the MCU’s Sacred Timeline. And then, as Echo made its streaming debut, Disney Plus added all the Defenders-verse series to the Official Timeline order of the MCU. Winderbaum’s belief became the official word: the Netflix series are now MCU canon.
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.
Brad Winderbaum on Marvel Television’s Netflix series
With the revelation that all 13 seasons and ALL 161 nearly hour-long episodes are now part of the Infinity Saga. While that makes the uber-cool MCU rewatch damn near impossible, there are still those among you who are sure to try it. While it is in no way as cut and dried as it appears on Disney Plus–flashbacks are a storytelling staple of the Marvel Netflix series and each of them (other than The Defenders) has more than one season–it’s still possible to place each of the Netflix series right where they belong in the MCU. And if you’re looking for such a thing, you’re in luck. Though none of the events of the Netflix series impact the known MCU in any way, we can still place them among the Marvel Studios projects…so we did.
The biggest thing to realize if you’re about to dive in is that without going minute by minute of each episode and of most of the films, there is no TRUE chronological order. For instance, parts of Doctor Strange take place in 2016 but the bulk of it takes place in 2017 and parts of each of these series take place all over the timeline. For the purposes of this list, each project is placed where MOST of the events take place. It’s also worth noting that while most of the films that were released in the Infinity Saga were set when they were released, that’s not the case with the series. For example, Season 1 of Daredevil was released in 2015 but takes place in 2014.
Daredevil Season 1
Daredevil 1.10, “Nelson v. Murdock”, features several flashbacks that take place in August 2014, well over two years after the Battle of New York in The Avengers. In that episode, which also takes place a few months after the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Foggy and Matt are interns at the law firm Landman and Zack and together turn down full-time jobs there to pursue more fulfilling work by opening their own firm which they eventually do in January 2015. The episode also includes Matt’s first time putting on the homemade, black suit.
Outside of the flashbacks, the events of Daredevil Season 1 all take place between January and mid-February 2015 which means–as is indicated on Disney Plus–that it fits after Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and I Am Groot, all of which take place in mid-to-late 2014.
Jessica Jones Season 1
Jessica Jones 1.01, “AKA Ladies Night”, is set in March 2015, just a few weeks after the events of Daredevil Season 1. The events of the season finale are set in mid-April 2015, head of Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Daredevil Season 2
Though some flashbacks in episode 2.09, “Seven Minutes in Heaven”, take place earlier in the year, episode 2.01, “Bang”, takes place in October 2015 and the season wraps up by November 2015. Chronologically, the events of Ant-Man take place BEFORE Daredevil Season 2.
Luke Cage Season 1
Much of the first season of Luke Cage takes place simultaneously with the second season of Daredevil. Though there are plenty of flashbacks, episode 1.01, “Moment of Truth”, is set in early November 2015 and the final brawl with Willis Stryker on Malcolm X Boulevard takes place in early December 2015.
Iron Fist Season 1
After succeeding in the trial of Shou-Lao the Undying, Danny Rand became the Iron Fist in 2015. His return to New York, as seen in episode 1.01, “Snow Gives Way”, takes place in February 2016. The season wraps up in March 2016 when Danny and Colleen Wing arrive in K’un-Lun.
The Defenders
Netflix’s crossover event series, The Defenders, brought Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Danny Rand together against the Hand. The series kicks off in early May 2016 and is all wrapped up by mid-May 2016, meaning part of takes place concurrently with Captain America: Civil War.
The Punisher Season 1
After debuting in Daredevil Season 2, Jon Bernthal‘s Frank Castle took center stage in his own series. Episode 1.01, “3 AM”, is set in November 2016 and the season concludes before Christmas 2016. That window fits in nicely between Spider-Man: Homecoming and Doctor Strange.
Jessica Jones Season 2
Sort of free of Kilgrave, ace PI Jessica Jones returned to Netflix in 2018 for a second season. Episode 2.01, “AKA Start at the Beginning”, is set in April 2017 and the finale, “AKA Playland”, takes place in June 2017.
Luke Cage Season 2
Like Jessica Jones Season 2, the sophomore season of Luke Cage rolled out on Netflix in 2018. Mike Colter’s bulletproof hero of Harlem found himself up against the wonderful villain Bushmaster. A lot happened in a short amount of time as 2.01, “Soul Brother #1”, was set in August 2017 and the events of Season 2 came to an end in September 2017.
Iron Fist Season 2
Season 2 of Iron Fist, which hit Netflix in September 2018, seemed to find its creative groove, especially compared to the low-rated Season 1. The ten-episode second season was set ALMOST entirely in October 2017. Much of the latter part of the season, including 2.10, “A Duel of Iron”, which sees Danny defeat Davos, takes place concurrently with Season 3 of Daredevil. Danny’s search for Orson Randall is set in early 2018.
Daredevil Season 3
The third and final season of Daredevil was released on Netflix was the fourth Marvel TV series to hit the streaming service in 2018. Set in October and November 2017, Season 3 of Daredevil wraps up just a few weeks before Thor’s escape from Muspehlheim as seen in the opening of Thor: Ragnarok.
The Punisher Season 2
The final season of The Punisher was the second to last of Netflix’s Defenders-verse. Essentially, the events are happening right alongside those of Season 3 of Jessica Jones, though those darn flashbacks make for a fun time sorting out the details. Episode 2.02 of The Punisher takes place right about the same time as Episode 3.01 of Jessica Jones and the season wraps up in mid-May, less than weeks earlier than JJS3. However, the epilogue of the final episode, “The Whirlwind”, takes place in August 2018…which kind of matters.
Jessica Jones Season 3 (April 26-May 28)
The third and final season of Jessica Jones kicks off in April 2018 and largely takes place at the same time as the second season of The Punisher. 3.13, “AKA EVERYTHING”, the last episode of the Netflix-produced series, ends with Jones deciding to stay in New York City and embrace her role as a hero. The first episode of the series, “AKA The Perfect Burger”, takes place just ahead of Cassie Lang’s weekend at Scott Lang’s house as shown the in beginning of Ant-Man and The Wasp. Indeed, much of the series takes place concurrently with the main events of Ant-Man and The Wasp, which, of course, includes the post-credit scene that includes the impact of Thanos’s snap.
TL;DR
The Netflix series all take place between the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Thanos’ snap in Avengers: Infinity War. Canonically, the snap takes place on May 31st, 2018, so all the events of the Defenders-verse take place within the Infinity Saga.
The Ultimate Order
Daredevil Season 1 Jessica Jones Season 1 Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ant-Man
Daredevil Season 2 Luke Cage Season 1 Iron Fist Season 1
The Defenders
Captain America: Civil War Black Widow Black Panther
Spider-Man: Homecoming The Punisher Season 1 Doctor Strange
Jessica Jones Season 2 Luke Cage Season 2 Iron Fist Season 2
Daredevil Season 3 Thor: Ragnarok The Punisher Season 2
Like Captain America: Brave New World and Daredevil: Born Again, Wonder Man was deemed to require a little creative overhaul after Marvel Studios had some time to reflect on the project during the WGA and SAG strikes. Originally set to resume production in late 2023, the steps taken to rework the series–which likely included a larger time commitment from creator and director Destin Daniel Cretton–took a bit longer than expected leading to bogus rumors that the series had been canceled. Bogus as they were, like much of the bullshit on the internet in modern times those rumors took hold and became a prominent belief among fans. Now those rumors have been completely dispelled as set photos of the Marvel Spotlight series have emerged from Los Angeles.
X user @douglaszaldaaa posted several photos of a set being created for Wonder Man in Westwood, California. The photos indicate that some of the rumored plot points of the series seem to remain intact after the retooling.
Based on the character of Wonder Man, one of Marvel’s oldest characters, first introduced in 1964 in the pages of Avengers No 9. Known as Simon Williams, a celebrity actor and stuntman. In a nutshell, it is a story of two actors struggling to make it in the Hollywood of the MCU, [asking] the big question what does Hollywood look like in a world where super heroes are real?
The new behind-the-scenes pictures show a set being constructed that will likely serve as the location of a big Hollywood premier for a “Wonder Man” movie. One of the set photos includes a silhouette of a classic Wonder Man costume which will obviously be part of the in-universe film.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is set to bring Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, to life and will share the screen with Ben Kingsley who will reprise the role of Trevor Slattery in the project. Demetrius Grosse was reportedly cast as Simon’s brother, Eric, also known as the comic book villain the Grim Reaper. Hollywood legend Ed Harris also reportedly joined the film as Neal Saroyan, Simon’s agent. It remains to be seen what changes to the cast, if any, follow the creative overhaul of the project.
After filming for several months, Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Daredevil: Born Again paused production due to the SAG strike. Before it did, plenty of reports and rumors about the series made their way online including one that indicated two major supporting characters from the Netflix Dedenders-verse series were not part of the plans for the D+ show. Now, a new report suggests that’s changed.
According the Jeff “The In” Sneider, Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll have joined the cast of Daredevil: Born Again as part of the sweeping creative overhaul ordered for the series.
Henson and Woll, who played Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, respectively, were introduced in 2015’s Daredevil and had significant roles in that 3 seasons of that series while also appearing in other Netflix series, as well. Online fan response to them reportedly NOT returning for Daredevil: Born Again was largely negative. Sneider’s report did not indicate how large of a role the returning actors will have in the series
After having time to review footage during the strike-induced shutdown, Kevin Feige and crew decided to change up the creative team on Daredevil: Born Again. Dario Scardapane was brought on as showrunner while Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead–who are quickly becoming Marvel Studios go-to-duo–were brought in to direct. According to Sneider, the new creative team will use the previously shot footage to put together 6 episodes. As production restarts, the plan is to film 3 new episodes–one of which will be a new “Episode 1”–giving them nine episode to roll out as the first half of the series.
It’s been some time since they first announced that they would be developing a final chapter in the main Star Trek cinematic franchise, which was started by J.J. Abrams. Originally, Matt Shakman was attached to direct but he went on to work on Apple TV+’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and is currently busy preparing to direct Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four film.
While we still have no clear future for that entry, it does seem that Paramount is not going to rest with their franchise just ending as a new spinoff is in development. It seems it’ll take place in the same universe and sees Seth Grahame-Smith penning the script with Abrams‘ Bad Robot returning to produce. The big addition is that they also have a director attached to Andor’sToby Haynes.
The fourth Star Trek film is still in development and it is unclear how exactly these will connect, but it’s definitely an exciting announcement given the talent working on the project. Plus, there’s a chance they can explore the universe in a unique way given the long varied history of the franchise. Perhaps we’ll get a more intimate adaptation that returns to elements we haven’t seen in the franchise in quite some time.
DC Studios’ co-chair James Gunn recently indicated that Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow was on deck to begin production following Superman: Legacy. Now a trade report has revealed three potential front runners for the coveted role of Kara Zor-El.
According to Deadline, Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon), Meg Donnelly, who voiced the character in the 2023 animated film Legion of Super-Heroes, and Emilia Jones (Netflix’s Locke and Key) are expected to screen test for the role in the next month.
The Last of Us is slowly preparing for its second season. The upcoming continuation of the iconic story will adapt The Last of Us Part 2. It’s still unclear if it’ll be a direct adaptation of the entire sequel or rather split up into multiple seasons given the story’s length. Still, the first two castings confirm that we’re not getting any unique take or original expansion, as the HBO show has found its Abby and Jesse.
The big addition is Kaitlyn Dever, who will take on the challenging role of Abby. Besides the stellar emotional performance the role offers, a lot of weight comes with tackling this character due to reactions to the original game it’s adapting. Not to give away any major spoilers, but it will be interesting to get a feeling of how they tackle that scene in general.
She’ll be joined by Young Mazino, who will take on the role of Jesse. While not the biggest role in the original story, he’s still an important recurring character. There’s still no news on how many from the original cast we can expect to return and if they’ll tackle the season the same way, but it’s great to see that things are getting moving on the second season. We’ll likely get a few major castings news in the weeks to come as they slowly start preparing for the production start.
For the first time ever, a Marvel Studios streaming project had all episodes debut at once when Echo premiered on Disney Plus and Hulu. That meant plenty of fans stayed up late binging all five episodes of the TV-MA project with many taking to social media indicating it caused them to reminisce about the days of binging Netflix’s Marvel series just less than a decade or so ago. While Echo included a couple of connections to Netflix’s Daredevil, it also hinted at a major plot point for Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again and one of the studio’s most anticipated films.
After the credits rolled on the fifth and final episode of the series, titled “Maya”, a post-credit stinger showed Vincent D’Onofrio‘s Wilson Fisk–greatly changed by his encounter with Maya–headed back to New York on his private plane. After instructing his assistant to assemble “all the remaining heads” (presumably of New York City’s crime organizations) to “stabilize the situation before it spirals out of control.” The Kingpin’s attention then shifts a television where some Spectrum News talking heads are discussing the lack of a clear frontrunner in the race for a new Mayor of NYC. As the news anchors explain New Yorkers are looking for a “fighter” who can understand the pain and frustration they’re experiencing rather than a traditional politician, one says that a “bare-knuckle brawler” willing to “take on the establishment” would “do well” in the race for Mayor. As Fisk–clearly captivated by the idea of running for Mayor–leans forward, the camera cuts to black. What does this mean for the next time we see D’Onofrio’s character in Daredevil: Born Again?
Though Born Again has undergone significant creative restructuring, the post-credit scene would seem to ensure that one major plot point will stay intact when filming resumes. Several months before filming originally began, a rumor circulated that the series would feature Fisk running for Mayor of New York City (and eventually winning the race), as seen in author Charles Soule‘s acclaimed run on Marvel Comics Daredevil. In that run, as Mayor of NYC, Fisk launched a massive anti-vigilante campaign aimed at taking out long-time nemeses such as Daredevil and Spider-Man without lifting a finger. Further rumors about Daredevil: Born Again have consistently indicated that Fisk will launch a similar campaign in the series which will have some major implications for the MCU.
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