‘Daredevil,’ ‘Jessica Jones’ and More Marvel Shows Leaving Netflix on March 1 – Next Stop Disney+?

Netflix is losing its “Defenders” franchise as the rights revert back to Disney.

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Marvel Studios

Netflix is going to be without its Defenders come March 1. The collection of Marvel television series – including “Jessica Jones,” “Daredevil,” “The Punisher,” “Luke Cage” and “Iron Fist” – will be leaving the platform at the end of the month, per the streaming service. Title pages for each show list the final day to watch as Feb. 28. Disney will then regain the rights to the shows, which will presumably migrate to their streaming services sometime soon. Official distribution plans have not yet been announced.

Launched back in 2015, the Netflix/Marvel series were meant to be complementary to the Marvel Cinematic Universe series of films (they frequently refer to the events of 2012’s “The Avengers,” but none of the characters from the movies ever show up), introducing all-new characters who exist in their own pocket of that larger continuum. The characters were introduced individually before they collided in a miniseries called “The Defenders,” a sort of street-level version of “The Avengers.” But the series all felt overlong and failed to connect with audiences in the ways that Netflix and Marvel (whose television division was then separate from the cinematic efforts) had hoped, and the MCU and Netflix shows never crossed over in any meaningful way …

… That is, until very recently. In the same week, Daredevil himself (Charlie Cox) showed up in big-screen blockbuster “Spider-Man: No Way Home” while Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), the main antagonist from “Daredevil,” made his debut in “Hawkeye,” the Disney+ series based on the arrow-obsessed Avengers character.

While Netflix’s marvel series generated a fair amount of attention (particularly “Jessica Jones”), and each lasted multiple seasons (even “Iron Fist”), they lacked the production value and polish of the more recent Disney+ series which, like the films, are overseen by Kevin Feige. It’ll be interesting to see if these shows are brought into the MCU and accepted as canon, or if they will be relegated to part of the multiverse. (When Disney acquired Lucasfilm, they ruled that much of the preexisting “Star Wars” canon would no longer have any bearing on the main narrative. Instead, they would be “Star Wars” “Legends.”)

A move to Disney+ seems likely; after Daredevil popped up in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the “Daredevil” series became one of the most-watched shows on Netflix. But the Netflix series have a harder edge, too, which could place them outside of the type of content usually associated with Disney+; “Jessica Jones” in particular deals with sexual assault in a fairly frank way.

Netflix and Disney+ did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. We will update when information about where the Netflix series will land becomes available.

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