By October 2013, Marvel Television was preparing four drama series and a miniseries, totaling 60 episodes, to present to video on demand services and cable providers, with Netflix, Amazon, and WGN America expressing interest.

[26] Murdock eventually crosses paths with Frank Castle / Punisher, a vigilante with far deadlier methods, and sees the return of his old girlfriend, Elektra Natchios.

[31] A second season was ordered on April 21, 2015, with Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez taking over as showrunners from DeKnight, who could not return to the series due to a prior commitment.

[19] The first season, which debuted in its entirety on April 10, 2015,[33] features references to The Avengers (2012)[34] and mentions Carl "Crusher" Creel, a character from the MCU series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

[39][40][41] Jon Bernthal co-stars as Frank Castle / Punisher,[42] before headlining his own series,[11] while Michelle Hurd and Carrie-Anne Moss reprise their roles of Samantha Reyes and Jeri Hogarth from Jessica Jones.

[45] In November 2013, Melissa Rosenberg was announced as the writer and executive producer of the series,[20] and the following March, Loeb stated that filming would begin after Daredevil.

[21] The first season, which debuted in its entirety on November 20, 2015,[50] features references to the events and characters of The Avengers[51] and co-stars Mike Colter as Luke Cage before he headlined his own series.

[54] The second season, which was released on March 8, 2018,[55] sees Elden Henson reprise his role of Franklin "Foggy" Nelson,[56] as well as Rob Morgan as Turk Barrett,[57] and Tijuana Ricks as Thembi Wallace.

[60][61] When a sabotaged experiment gives him super strength and unbreakable skin, Luke Cage becomes a fugitive attempting to rebuild his life in Harlem and must soon confront his past and fight a battle for the heart of his city.

[69] Reprising their roles in the season are Dawson as Temple,[70] Morgan as Barrett, Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, Stephen Rider as Blake Tower,[69] Parisa Fitz-Henley as Reva Connors,[71] and Danny Johnson as Ben Donovan.

[73][74] Finn Jones,[75] Jessica Henwick,[76] and Henson reprise their roles as Danny Rand, Colleen Wing, and Foggy Nelson in the season.

[24] The first season, which premiered on March 17, 2017,[78] makes references to the events of The Avengers, the Hulk, Stark Industries, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Seagate Prison,[82] and mentions the Dogs of Hell biker gang, New York Bulletin editor-in-chief Mitchell Ellison and reporter Karen Page,[83] Roxxon Oil, and Midland Circle.

[82][85] Reprising their roles in the season are Moss as Hogarth,[86] Dawson as Temple,[87] Wai Ching Ho as Gao,[88] Marquis Rodriguez as Darryl,[89] Tijuana Ricks as Thembi Wallace, and Suzanne H. Smart as Shirley Benson.

[97][98] The miniseries also sees many supporting characters from the individual series reprise their roles, including, Deborah Ann Woll,[99] Henson,[100] Scott Glenn,[101] Élodie Yung,[102] Eka Darville,[103] Moss,[100] Taylor,[101] Simone Missick,[104] Jessica Henwick,[105] Dawson,[101] Ho,[106] Ramón Rodríguez,[107] Peter McRobbie,[108] Morgan,[109] Amy Rutberg, Susan Varon, and Nichole Yannetty as Karen Page, Foggy Nelson, Stick, Elektra Natchios, Malcolm Ducasse, Jeri Hogarth, Trish Walker, Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Claire Temple, Gao, Bakuto, Lantom, Turk Barrett, Marci Stahl, Josie and Nicole, respectively.

Midland Circle, which was referenced in previous Netflix series,[110][111] is revealed to be an operation of the Hand, who bought the building to search for the life substance hidden beneath the property.

[109] Frank Castle is haunted and hunted after the murder of his family and becomes a vigilante known in the criminal underworld as "the Punisher" who aims to fight crime by any means necessary.

[11][112] By January 2016, ahead of the debut of Bernthal as armed vigilante Frank Castle / Punisher in the second season of Daredevil, Netflix was in "very early development" on a spin-off series and was looking for a showrunner.

[113][114][10] Loeb implied that Marvel Television had not instigated the development of the spin-off and was focusing on making "the best 13 episodes of Daredevil season two" at the time but did say, "I'm never going to discourage a network from looking at one of our characters and encouraging us to do more...

[122] With the release of the second season of Daredevil, Brian Lowery of Variety felt the Netflix series "have already leapfrogged ABC's forays into the Marvel universe in terms of their appeal, in part by tapping into the avid fan base that supports pay models and doesn't need to be spoon-fed plot points.

[164] Conversely, Eric Francisco of Inverse called Jessica Jones's lack of overt connections to the MCU "the show's chief advantage.

"[165] After the release of the first season of Luke Cage, The Atlantic's David Sims highlighted the pacing of Marvel's Netflix series, a common complaint from critics of all the series, stating, "After two seasons of Daredevil, one of Jessica Jones, and now one of Luke Cage, the Netflix model feels fundamentally flawed, encouraging the kind of molasses-slow plotting comic books are designed to eschew.

[167] With The Defenders, Jeff Jansen of Entertainment Weekly felt many improvements were made in response to the common complaints the previous seasons received.

[15] Netflix vice president of original content Cindy Holland reiterated in July 2018 that there were always ongoing discussions regarding creating more spin-offs for characters from their Marvel series.

[169] That September, Loeb stated that he would like to make a Daughters of the Dragon series for Netflix, featuring Jessica Henwick's Colleen Wing and Simone Missick's Misty Knight.

[171] In September 2015, Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige said the films referencing the television series was inevitable, but "the schedules do not always quite match up to make that possible [since] by the time we start doing a movie, they'd be mid-way through a season.

"[172] In April 2016, Marvel Studios revealed that Alfre Woodard would appear in Captain America: Civil War (2016), having already been cast as Mariah Dillard in Luke Cage the previous year.

[184] In October 2018, Netflix canceled Iron Fist, with Deadline Hollywood reporting that Disney was considering reviving the series on its streaming service Disney+.

[190][191] Kevin A. Mayer, chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, noted that, while it had not yet been discussed, it was a possibility that Disney+ could revive the cancelled Netflix series.

[204] In December 2021, Feige revealed that any upcoming Marvel Studios projects featuring Daredevil would have Cox reprise his role as the character,[205] with the actor first appearing in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021).

[218][219][220] In February 2025, Winderbaum said that Born Again was envisioned as a multi-season series, and that the studio was exploring and "creatively extremely excited" about trying to reintroduce the other Defenders actors.