After Daredevil rolled out on Netflix April 10, the question became when we would see the next series from Marvel on the streaming outlet. Though the next program, Jessica Jones, was being filmed, no premiere date or schedule had been announced.
However, those plans became a bit clearer with this week’s Television Critics Association press tour. Netflix announced that a new Marvel show will premiere on the network every six months. Following that schedule, viewers can expect to see Jessica Jones (starring Krysten Ritter) available on Netflix beginning in October or November. (Though, again, no exact release date was given.) That’s an exciting development for anyone concerned that we might not see another Marvel show on Netflix until 2016.
Once all four Marvel Netflix shows have been launched, they’ll cross over for Defenders, but “some will selectively have multiple seasons”
— Laura Prudom (@LauInLA) July 28, 2015
Season two of Daredevil is being filmed right now, so that should put it in line to premiere next April, around the same spot on the calendar where the series debuted this year.
Which show follows Daredevil‘s second season in next fall’s slot is the next question Marvel will have to answer. Another season of Jessica Jones seems logical, but another character that will get his own series, Luke Cage, will be a part of the cast as the title character’s boyfriend and could naturally jump off into that next show.
Marvel and Netflix have one more series planned, the martial arts-centered Iron Fist (who typically teams with Cage in the comic books), but there has been some reported difficulty in developing that show. As reported by BIRTH.MOVIES.DEATH’s Devin Faraci, the main concern is whether or not a character who has mystical and supernatural roots will delve into that territory on this series, or if the show will try to stay realistic and “street-level” like Daredevil. While Marvel tries to figure out the proper tone (and how that fits with a TV budget), writers and producers have been making pitches for the show.
The eventual plan is for all four individual shows and characters to combine, Avengers-style, on a team-up series titled The Defenders. Until each individual series is established, The Defenders presumably can’t roll out. Assuming each of the shows gets at least one season, and going by the every-six-months schedule, that puts The Defenders off until at least 2017 and more likely 2018.
Could Marvel develop another series within that timetable? With The Punisher being part of Daredevil‘s season two, there is some anticipation for the homicidal vigilante (played by Jon Bernthal) possibly getting his own show. When asked about that during the TCA panel, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos acknowledged a Punisher spinoff was a possibility. Most likely, the network and Marvel are waiting to see how the character works and is received by audiences before making such a decision.
Of course, any of these Defenders characters either crossing over with the Marvel Cinematic Universe or getting their own feature films is an option on the table as well. But at this point, that seems to be putting the cart far before the horse. While Daredevil appears to have been a huge success for Netflix and Marvel, there’s still quite a bit of uncertainty regarding the rest of these series and whether or not pushing a show out every six months is realistic.
