Earlier this year, Marvel and Netflix found great success with Daredevil, which has already become the streaming service’s highest rated series. A second season has already been announced and three more shows – A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist – have been greenlit as lead-ins for a team-up miniseries dubbed The Defenders.
While that would seem like an ambitious enough endeavor to take on, a new report suggests that the studio is already looking ahead and deciding which characters to bring into Phase Two of the Netflix corner of the MCU.
According to Heroic Hollywood, characters like the Punisher, Blade, Ghost Rider, and even Black Widow are on the table, as Marvel TV hopes to stay in step with the cinematic side of the shared universe equation. Rumors have been swirling that Kevin Feige looks down on Marvel’s television branch, which could explain why something like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t provide many necessary crossovers or substantial through-lines with the films. For instance, despite introducing the Inhumans last season, it’s expected that the storyline will be largely ignored when the Inhumans standalone film arrives in 2019.
As such, Marvel appears to be shifting much of its energy toward the Netflix shows, which it has more control over than the “silly network mandates” that Disney is able to foist upon shows airing on ABC. There are still network series in the works, like the stalled Cloak & Dagger adaptation, John Ridley’s mysterious new project (which could very well be Ms. Marvel) and maybe even a Hulk prequel series, but it sounds like the plan is to lean more heavily on Netflix for new characters going forward.