Daredevil & Other Marvel Defenders Shows Leaving Netflix March First

Marvel’s Daredevil and other TV shows developed with Netflix will be leaving the streaming platform on March 1st, 2022, according to Netflix. Reports began to emerge overnight that various European consumers were seeing a warning at the start of episodes that indicated the series would be leaving Netflix on February 28. ComicBook was able to replicate the warnings by looking at season 2 episodes of both Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Other Marvel shows on Netflix include Luke Cage, The Punisher, Iron Fist, and The Defenders. There is no word on whether all of the series, or just the earliest “wave” of Marvel shows will be impacted.

The series were developed by Marvel Television and originally aired exclusively on Netflix. They were set in the shared universe of the Marvel movies (the Marvel Cinematic Universe), but almost never referenced anything in those movies, and were never referenced at all by the movies themselves.

When Kevin Feige replaced Jeph Loeb as the head of Marvel TV, and Disney announced that Marvel shows would begin to appear on Disney+, it was clear that time was up for the Defenders shows. One by one they failed to get additional-season pickups, and the characters were never used or referenced, until Netflix’s rights window started to close.

In 2021, Vincent D’Onofrio reprised his role as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, which he originated on Daredevil, for the last couple of episodes of Hawkeye on Disney+. At the same time, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdoch/Daredevil appeared briefly in Spider-Man: No Way Home. In January rumors circulated that Disney plans to make a new Daredevil series for Disney+, which would also star Cox. Cox is also set to reprise the role in the upcoming She-Hulk series on Disney+, while D’Onofrio is suspected (but not yet confirmed) to be playing the Kingpin in Echo.

It’s likely that Disney+ or Hulu will become the new streaming home of any Marvel series that leaves Netflix. While some studios have arcane deals that bounce content around from one streaming service to another, something created by Disney and Netflix, and intended as a Netflix exclusive, seems unlikely to end up anywhere else. Disney+ is the “official” home of Marvel these days, but the Netflix shows tend to be a little more R-rated than Disney+ carries in the U.S., making Hulu a very plausible choice.