One interesting facet of the Netflix corner of the MCU is the way they are handling the passage of time between the various series. For the cinematic movies, they all occur in the year they are released, hence the ‘Avengers’ were formed in 2012 when the movie was released, and Ultron destroyed Sokovia in 2015 when ‘Age of Ultron’ came out. However, that is not exactly how things are working for the Netflix shows. Because we are literally seeing the character of Claire crossing over onto every show, and not much time passing for her between each one, we know that not much time at all seems to be occurring between each series, despite the fact that they all take place so about a year or so apart (up to this point at least). And now, we have confirmation that even though ‘The Defenders’ will air well over a year after ‘Daredevil’ Season 2, in-universe it will occur only a few months after the events of the finale of that season, at least according to the star of the series.
During a recent interview with EW, Charlie Cox spoke about the time between the end of ‘Daredevil’ Season 2 and the start of ‘The Defenders,’ and what state of mind Matt Murdock will be in when the new series begins:
“Well, it’s been a few months since the end of season 2. I think it’s been quite a challenging few months for him. He took the death of Elektra very badly — I think he feels responsible for that. One of Matt’s big things is trying to protect the people he loves, which is why he keeps his identity hidden, and he’s failed. He’s left holding the dead body of a loved one, and so I think he’s tried to turn a corner.”
This could be part of the reason why it is difficult to cross-over the Netflix shows with the movies, as the shows ultimately are still taking place “in the past” while the movies are always planned for future dates, meaning a lot of planning would have to go in to make sure the characters line up to where they need to be for the movie timeline should a cross-over happen. Still, the Netflix model is better in some ways as it allows us to really see the journey of the characters without skipping over months (or even years) at a time the way the movies do, making us feel like we missed a lot of character development.
What are your thoughts on the different time models? Is there one that you prefer? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
