Netflix's Marvel shows are leaving the service in March - but where will they go next?

It is truly the end of an era, people. Entertainment Weekly was able to confirm the reports are indeed true: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher will all be leaving Netflix on Tuesday, March 1 as the rights lapse back to Disney and Marvel Studios.

Where will all these fan favorite shows end up? That's the million-dollar question on everyone's mind. It seems unlikely they'll be moved over to Disney+, given their mature content, but such an avenue is not entirely out of the realm of possibility. After all, The Simpsons, which can sometimes get a little risqué, is available on the family-friendly service. Plus Moon Knight is expected to get a bit darker than the MCU fare to date, so it's possible. Deadline purports that the House of Mouse plans to announce a new home for the titles "soon."

Originally produced under the Marvel Television banner headed up by Jeph Loeb, the Netflix projects wove their own street-level corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with the first season of Daredevil (led by Charlie Cox) in 2015. Aside from offhand references to the wider goings-on of the MCU, these adventures mostly stayed separate from their blockbuster cousins.

Not long after Matt Murdock became a rousing success, Jessica Jones (led by Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (led by Mike Colter), and Iron Fist (led by Finn Jones) followed in quick succession, with all of them culminating in The Defenders miniseries that premiered in the summer of 2017. Daredevil and Jessica Jones ran for three seasons a piece while Luke Cage and Iron Fist stalled out after two.

The Punisher (starring Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle) also bowed in 2017, spinning out of the world of Daredevil. It ran for two seasons and would be the final Marvel project at Netflix before Disney decided to consolidate its small and big screen comic book universes.

Loeb found himself out of a job as President Kevin Feige was promoted to Marvel's Chief Creative Officer. Under his leadership, Marvel Studios began developing long-form superhero titles for the world of streaming. This grand plan for media expansion became a reality in early 2021 via the world premiere of WandaVision on Disney+. Four series have followed since then and plenty more are still on the way (Moon Knight is up next month).

At the same time, the new strategy seemed to imply certain de-canonization of the Netflix shows. But in the span of a single week, Marvel Studios surprised us all by reintroducing Cox as Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin in Hawkeye. Not only that, but the latter actually confirmed that the version of Wilson Fisk we see in the Disney+ series is the same one from the Netflix continuity. 

Does this mean the rest of the Defenders are waiting in the wings for their cue to come back onstage? We sure hope so!