Marvel Studios has been making waves ever since ‘Iron Man’ came out. While True Believers continue to talk about their films like ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ and ‘Ant-Man’ or ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and ‘Agent Carter’ on ABC, their recent foray into streaming exclusive content on Netflix is surely getting the biggest buzz at the moment. After dropping in April for all to binge, the first season of ‘Daredevil’ was so popular that the company deviated from their original plan laid out in 2013 to schedule a second season to premiere next year after the release of ‘Jessica Jones’. Now, the COO of Netflix fills us in on their current plan and what else is in store for their corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
According to IGN, Netflix COO Ted Sarandos spoke about Netflix’s Marvel properties during the Television Critics Association press tour this week. First, he talked about the release schedule of the shows starring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist:
“I think ideally there will be a rhythm of about every six months you’ll get a new season or a new series from the Defenders group. And then they’ll crossover into a combined [Defenders] season once we’ve launched the first season of each of the four characters. Some will selectively have multiple seasons as they come out of the gate. So they’ll probably be two launches a year.”
Sarandos wasn’t specific about which Defenders would be getting multiple seasons or when exactly we’d be seeing each show. In fact, when pressed about ‘Iron Fist’, the least talked about and most mysterious of the upcoming Marvel titles, he didn’t have much in the form of an update on casting or anything else:
“Hopefully soon. It’s always a little extra complex with Marvel in announcing things.”
When we last heard about Danny Rand, it sounded like announcing an actor for the role wasn’t the only complex thing surrounding the project. It has been rumored that Marvel is having trouble cracking the story due to the amount of magic and mysticism connected to the character. But while the House of Ideas works on that hero, they seem to have another one pretty figured out. Prior to San Diego Comic-Con, they announced that Jon Bernthal of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’, and ‘The Walking Dead’ would be playing Frank Castle, the no-nonsense hard-ass vigilante known as the Punisher. The character will make his MCU debut in season two of ‘Daredevil’, but the exec hinted that a spinoff may be in the books as well:
“It is possible for sure. That’s the beauty of the Marvel universe. Any of them could spin out into films too.”
Though the executive remained pretty vague in his answers, it’s pretty great news for Marvel fans that we’ll be getting so much content on a yearly basis. We already get two movies per year and (presuming that they don’t get cancelled) two awesome shows on ABC. With Netflix also releasing two shows per year, we’re likely in store for Marvel goodness all year round. Sure, many people may not be on board for this, but I’m gonna go ahead and enjoy it for as long as I can.
What do you think about Netflix’s plan for their Marvel Studios programming? Are you getting impatient over the lack of ‘Iron Fist’ information? And would you be into a Punisher spinoff starring Jon Bernthal? Sound off in the comments.
