The Defenders have finally come home. Thanks to Echo, a decade-long debate over whether Daredevil and the rest of Defenders Saga is canon has been put to bed as Disney Plus has added the full line-up of the former Netflix shows to its official MCU timeline.
You’d think that Charlie Cox showing up in both Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law would’ve done the trick on that front, but there was still some confusion whether he and Hawkeye‘s Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin were playing the same exact characters as on Netflix or if they were just identical variants. Now, however, we can confirm they are one and the same.
OK, so now that fans can watch Daredevil as part of a massive Marvel binge on Disney Plus, here’s the big question we have: where does the show take place in the MCU timeline? The streamer has revealed its placement of the series as a whole, but that doesn’t take into account that DD aired across four years, during the course of which a lot changed within the reality of Earth-616. Let’s do our best to lay it all out.
When does Daredevil take place in the MCU timeline?
Daredevil season 1 is actually more closely connected to the wider MCU than you would expect, as Matt Murdock’s hometown of Hell’s Kitchen is in a poor state following what the characters refer to as “The Incident,” which fans will know better as the Battle of New York, as seen in The Avengers. Hell’s Kitchen was decimated in the Chitauri Invasion, which has left it primed to be taken over by the Kingpin.
An exchange in the pilot episode confirms that the show opens two years after The Avengers (released in 2012), which must mean it takes place in spring/summer 2014. This is why Disney Plus encourages fans to watch the series after Guardians of the Galaxy Vols 1 and 2 and I Am Groot. What’s more, that puts the beginning of DD concurrent with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s first season.
As for season 2, a newspaper headline glimpsed in episode 5 reads “CyberTek Settles,” referencing the fall of Deathlok creators CyberTek in the AoS season 1 finale. That tells us that DD season 2 again matches up with S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2, which places it after Age of Ultron, or maybe Ant-Man, and before Captain America: Civil War.
The third season, meanwhile, is the hardest to place. Released in late 2018, you might expect it to follow Avengers: Infinity War, but there’s absolutely no reference to Thanos or the Blip. Therefore it can probably be viewed alongside the other pre-Infinity War prequels like Black Widow and Ant-Man and the Wasp.
How does Daredevil fit in the Defenders Saga timeline?
On a more self-contained level, you might also be wondering where the various seasons of Daredevil slot in with the rest of the Defenders Saga. We have you covered with a full timeline of the shows if you want to watch the entire 13-season arc from start to finish, but here’s the relevant info you need to know about Daredevil.
Its first season kicked off the Defenders Saga, so watch that first and then move on to Jessica Jones season 1 before returning to DD for its second run. After catching up on the first seasons of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, you should then check out The Defenders miniseries. Upon completing The Punisher season 1 and the second seasons of both Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, you can then finish Matt Murdock’s journey with season 3. And, if you want to be a completist, feel free to follow those up by sticking on honorary Defenders Saga entries Hawkeye, She-Hulk, and Echo.
You can find all these series on Disney Plus.
