This past November, Netflix subscribers were graced with the dark and grimy world of “Jessica Jones." Months before that, “Daredevil” demonstrated that the shadow of Ben Affleck’s planned film wasn’t going to hold back what Marvel had planned. With recent news of “Jessica Jones" being renewed for a second season, we should look at what lies ahead for Marvel’s mature Netflix shows.
The next Netflix series coming from Marvel is the second season of “Daredevil.” Set to arrive March 18 at 12:01 p.m., “Daredevil” will continue Matthew Murdock’s story after defeating Wilson Fisk and putting the corrupt businessman behind bars. This season is set to introduce longtime love interest, enemy, ally and fan favorite, Elektra, first introduced in Frank Miller’s seminal run on “Daredevil” that has deeply inspired the show. Season two will also be the first we see of Marvel’s own version of The Punisher in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it will almost certainly not be the last. Now, let’s look at the upcoming Netflix roster of shows:
1. “Luke Cage” — First presented in “Jessica Jones,” Luke Cage is a character with unbreakable skin who gets mixed in to Jessica’s crazy world and ends up helping her against the villainous Kilgrave. Although serving primarily as a romantic interest and sidekick to Jones in the aforementioned series, the actor of Luke Cage, Mike Colter, promised fans that the new series will not be a sequel or spin-off of “Jessica Jones,” and that Cage will indeed have his own story to tell. Luke Cage is expected to have its debut this coming fall.
2. “Iron Fist” — Originally introduced in the comics alongside Luke Cage in “Heroes for Hire,” "Iron Fist” has had a tumultuous life. Announced at the same time as “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage” and “The Defenders,” “Iron Fist” has been rumored to be shelved to become a Netflix movie, but is now back on the books as a full Netflix series. Despite the turmoil, Netflix content chief, Ted Sarandos, confirmed that casting is “in-progress,” although we likely will not see the series this year, since the plan is to release two Marvel shows a year; 2016 being filled with “Daredevil” season two and “Luke Cage.”
3. “The Defenders” — Although The Defenders of the comics featured the Hulk, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange and Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Netflix series will feature the street level group of heroes introduced in the previous series and will hypothetically ban them together to face a great threat, but nothing is really known at this point what that is or even when to expect the series to drop. With “Jessica Jones” renewed and “Iron Fist” probably coming in 2017, it is likely that “The Defenders” will debut in the fall of 2017 at the earliest.
These shows have already been confirmed and announced, but a few others have been rumored lately, the first of which is “The Punisher.” As stated earlier, the character is going to appear in the second season of Daredevil, likely as the antagonist, with “The Walking Dead” star Jon Bernthal cast as Frank Castle. A show centered on his character, spinning off from “Daredevil,” was one of the circulating rumors on why “Iron Fist” might have been shelved. This is the most likely candidate for the post-Defenders series since he will already have been introduced and is a very popular character, but a plethora of other characters have been rumored as well, including the fan-favorite, Moon Knight, who is a Batman-like character that struggles with dissociative identity disorder and even insanity at times.
Regardless of what comes next, it is a safe bet that Netflix and Marvel will continue this partnership for years to come, and we will be able to look forward to binge-watching superhero action for the foreseeable future.