Daredevil, Punisher, and Other Marvel Netflix Rights Officially Reverting to Disney

The rights to the Marvel Netflix series Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and The Defenders team-up event series are all officially reverting to Marvel. A report has been released breaking down what’s going on behind the scenes; Marvel fans had social media buzzing earlier today after it was noticed that Netflix had added a March 1st removal date to its Marvel Netflix series. Well, sure enough, Disney will see the rights to those series back in its hand and is already teasing a forthcoming announcement about if/how it could be distributed.

By now it’s been no secret that Marvel and Netflix’s deal was always one of temporary alliance. While exact details have always been somewhat vague, the general gist was that Netflix had an overall amount of content they could produce, using a set range of characters from the Marvel Universe. It was also clear that Marvel Studios probably preferred some of those characters back, as events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe expanded over the years since Marvel Netflix launched (2015). 

Marvel fans have also been quite clear on just imminent the integration of Marvel Netflix in the MCU is, well before this report came out. That signal went up from Marvel itself, with two recent headline-grabbing casting reveals: Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in the Hawkeye Disney+ series, and Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil making a brief cameo appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Netflix’s Daredevil series has been the most popular of that line, and seeing the character and their same actor appear in the MCU has been a jolt of hope for many – and certainly a door to a lot more questions. 

After all, not all of the Marvel Netflix characters were universally loved – certainly not all of the castings, either. The biggest discrepancy was Game of Thrones actor Finn Jones as Danny Rand/Iron Fist, which is the series that probably struggled the most. It’s equally unclear if all of the stars of the Marvel Netflix series are even open to returning (though the appeal of being in the MCU kind of speaks for itself…). 

No doubt Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige already have plans and/or contracts in place for more surprise appearances by Netflix actors (Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, Elodie Yung’s Elektra) – or some surgical recastings, where needed (Iron Fist). Fans will likely be behind it, either way. 

Source: Deadline