Marvel Boss Officially Ends Netflix Defenders MCU Canon Debate

For a long time, the status of Netflix’s Marvel TV shows in relation to the MCU was in flux, with no one knowing whether they were canon or not. Now Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum has confirmed with 100% certainty that the Netflix Marvel shows – all of them – are MCU canon.

While recent years have seen characters from “other” Marvel projects, such as Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier from Fox’s X-Men, joining the MCU’s main continuity, the arrival of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin only seemed to cause confusion over whether their appearance automatically made Netflix’s Defenders Saga canon. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Winderbaum settled the score once and for all. He said:

“We finally said it out loud. When the Netflix shows were coming out and being made, we were building towards Infinity War and Endgame . We were trying to balance all of these film franchises and get them to culminate onscreen in these two epic movies. To say it was a challenge is not even correct. It was one of the most challenging creative endeavors the studio ever undertook. I’m not sure there will ever be anything like it again in cinema. It took so much to get all that stuff to galvanize in that one place and in that one time so that people could have that experience in the movie theater.

So, at the time, to say, “Alright, we’re also going to take this television show and wrap our heads around that,” it would’ve been too much, even though we were communicating back and forth. Everyone on the television side and the film side knew what each other was doing, and you can see that there’s a continuity there. The references do line up, but it was just too much for us to wrap our minds around at the time.”

Time Has Now Seen the Defenders Saga Find Its Place in the MCU

As Winderbaum continued, following the arrival of Disney+, it became easier to establish where Netflix’s Marvel shows, which included Jessica Jones and The Punisher, fit into the timeline. This turned into something that could not be pushed aside for any longer, and that has partly been the reason for changes made to the production of Daredevil: Born Again. Winderbaum explained:

“Flash forward now to Disney+, where we are actually laying out the timeline with tiles on a screen, all of a sudden we’re like, “We should just do it. Let’s do it.” It was also spurred by the redevelopment of Daredevil: Born Again , once we started to really lean into some of the mythology and backstory that was established in those Netflix shows. I was asked about this during the press for Echo , and I realized, “Oh, it’s not just assumed. People have an active interest and they want confirmation.” So we were able to do it fairly quickly, and it’s interesting that the service of Disney+ actually became the statement just by rearranging those tiles. That’s our medium to define the canon now, which is wild to think about.”

While Winderbaum did not go into any details about if and when the characters from other Netflix shows such as Iron Fist, Luke Cage and, of course, the frequently discussed Jessica Jones will turn up the MCU, if indeed at all. However, following these comments, it is clear that there is an ongoing effort to bring back many aspects of the Netflix shows, and that can only be a good thing for all of those fans who were devastated following their cancellation back in 2019.