Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, Movies, TV | Tagged: daredevil, iron fist, Jessica Jones, luke cage, Marvel Studios, netflix, punisher

Marvel Studios Exec on Why It Took So Long to Embrace Netflix Shows

Marvel Studios head of streaming Brad Winderbaum on why it took so long for them to embrace Netflix's Marvel shows into the MCU timeline.

When you go on Disney+'s MCU timeline these days, there's a sight there that fans of Netflix's Marvel series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Punisher & The Defenders) never thought they would see. That's right – each of the series has its respective place on the overall timeline – even sorted by season. While that might make it official, MCU fans witnessed Marvel Studios beginning to open the door wider and wider on the issue well before then – and that brought us the upcoming Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Wilson Fisk/Kingpin)-starring Daredevil: Born Again.

After a major creative rehaul, Dario Scardapane (Netflix's The Punisher) was brought in as showrunner, with the co-directing team of Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (Loki) set to helm the remainder of the season, and Philip Silvera (Netflix's Daredevil) serving as stunt coordinator and second unit director. If the number of Netflix-Marvel vets working behind the scenes wasn't enough, we also learned that Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) would be returning as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher – with Deborah Ann Woll & Elden Henson reprising their respective roles as Karen Page and Franklin "Foggy" Nelson.

But if you think that the studio only recently came around to the idea of embracing what Netflix's Marvel shows had to offer, Marvel Studios head of streaming Brad Winderbaum shared with The Hollywood Reporter that it was a topic that was addressed early on – and discussed why the decision was made to wait. "We finally said it out loud," Winderbaum said. "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 on screen 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."

The Marvel Studios executive continued, "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." But even though tackling lining up the shows with the current MCU timeline was put on the back burner, it was an issue that wasn't forgotten about.

"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," Winderbaum added.

Back in March 2023, word came down that Bernthal would be returning as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. Since that time, Bernthal has addressed the topic of returning as Castle without zeroing in on any show specifics. Meanwhile, we've seen images & video from filming that appear to show someone sporting the Punisher's skull, though not Bernthal. That would add fuel to the fire that the season will include a storyline about rogue cops perverting the Punisher's cause & symbol to justify their crimes. Someone definitely dropping a whole lot of fuel on our dumpster fires of speculation is none other than Bernthal – who took to Instagram to post an image of the cover to One Batch, Two Batch. Yup, Lisa Castle's favorite book before going to sleep – the one that contains "One Batch, Two Batch, Penny and Dime" (which we learn in Netflix's Daredevil S02E04: "Penny and Dime"). Could we be getting a backstory revisit as a reminder of how the Punisher came to be? Here's a look at the post:

Daredevil: Echo Post-Credits Scene Gives New Meaning to "Born Again"?

Without giving away too much, the final showdown between Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) and Kingpin finds Maya using the powers of her Choctaw ancestors to venture into Kingpin's mind to rid him of the pain & rage that's fueled him for so long. Okay, got that? Good… because that leads us to the mid-credits scene. Making a getaway to greener pastures on his private jet, a news report about the New York City mayoral race catches his attention. While the reporter discusses how the city is looking for someone who will fight for them, we see a look on Kingpin's face that says that he believes he could be the answer to NYC's problems. For those of you who are comics fans, you know that Fisk has already recently gone down that route post-"Secret Empire" in a storyline that saw Matt Murdock as deputy mayor and Luke Cage running for office (yeah, there was a lot going on).

But why is this situation so different? Because we don't know which Wilson Fisk wants to be mayor heading into Daredevil: Born Again. We knew what Kingpin we were dealing with pre-Echo, so it would be easy to write this off as just a mad power grab on Kingpin's part. But if all of that pain and rage is now gone, who are we dealing with now? Because "Born Again" takes on a totally different meaning if we're dealing with Fisk legitimately believing he can do right by NYC – that he can be his savior. Throw into that mix the possibility that what Maya did may not stick – maybe Fisk's pain and rage are just too great to stay gone forever. And now that we're thinking about it, having Matt Murdock not believing that Fisk has changed and continuing to target him could also be an interesting way to push Fisk back to his old, big-bad ways.

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