How To Watch The Marvel Netflix Shows In Order

Jon Favreau’s 2008 film “Iron Man” kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a multimedia superhero property that would remain dominant in the pop consciousness for over a decade. Initially, “Iron Man” and Louis Leterrier’s own 2008 MCU movie “The Incredible Hulk” (which finally got a sequel of sorts in 2025) were meant to be mere stand-alone superhero sories, only including references to the Avengers as a cute wink to fans. But when Disney purchased the Marvel library in 2009, a grander plan was put in motion, laying out multiple films at once, each one introducing a new character. Eventually, all the superhero characters teamed up in 2012’s “The Avengers,” which was essentially the cinematic version of a TV season finale. That structure held fast through to “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019, the 22nd film in the franchise, and one that featured many, many superheroes.

While the MCU’s movies were dominating theaters, Netflix got in on the action as well. Starting in 2015, the streamer began producing a collection of harder, more violent, street-level Marvel superhero shows that were also said to take place in the MCU. These series didn’t have the same flashy special effects, though, and only connected to the events of the MCU’s films in small ways. Its characters were also more prone to savagely beating people with their fists than using more fantastical super-powers.

Six Marvel shows were put out by Netflix from 2015 to 2019. They were, in the order of their release:

• Daredevil (2015)
• Jessica Jones (2015)
• Luke Cage (2016)
• Iron Fist (2017)
• The Defenders (2017)
• The Punisher (2017)

Read below for a brief rundown on each. “The Defenders,” it should be noted right away, was the crossover event of the Netflix Marvel shows. It featured all of the title heroes introduced to date.

“Daredevil,” like the eponymous film that preceded it, is about a blind lawyer named Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) who moonlights as a superhero. Murdock was blinded in an accident involving eerie chemicals, but the chemicals also enhanced his other senses to a supernatural degree. He has an increased sense of balance, and his hearing is so sharp he can essentially echolocate like a bat. He operates mostly in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, keeping him local and focused. If a criminal is able to squeeze through a legal loophole in court, Matt Murdock becomes Daredevil by night and hunts them down. During the day, he is friends with “Foggy” Nelson (Elden Henson), and he spends a lot of time working with Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll).

The malfeasance Daredevil encounters is mostly at the hands of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), better known as simply the Kingpin. The series also featured roles for Rosario Dawson, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Joanne Whalley. Élodie Yung played Elektra, a superheroine ninja-like character previously played by Jennifer Garner on the big screen.

“Daredevil” was highly praised upon its release, with many impressed by its hard-edged action, violence, and mature story. It was technically part of the MCU, but didn’t feel like any of the movies that came before it. The show ran for three seasons. Daredevil would end up being folded into the MCU movies and Disney + shows thanks to his appearances in the film “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and the TV series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” and “Echo.” Disney+ will also revive the character in the series “Daredevil: Born Again,” set for release on March 4, 2025.

As the more pedestrian title would have you believe, “Jessica Jones” is not a typical costumed vigilante. The title character (Krysten Ritter) once worked as a superhero named Jewel, but now runs her own detective agency, called Alias Investigations. She does have super strength, and can fly a little bit, but she eschews fancy outfits or secret identities. The Jessica Jones character debuted in 2001, when Marvel Comics was experimenting with edgier, more violent fare. The TV series, created by Melissa Rosenberg, follows suit, featuring plenty of bloody mayhem.

The character of Luke Cage (Mike Colter) showed up in “Jessica Jones,” and he would immediately go on to star in his own series. David Tennant, Janet McTeer, and Carrie-Ann Moss also had roles throughout the series, while Rachel Taylor played Trish, Jessica’s adopted sister and confidant. In the show’s third season, Trish got superpowers of her own and became a supervillain, fighting Jessica with her fists.

Because the central detective agency is called Alias, each episode title begins with “A.K.A.,” which is a cute touch. Jessica is just as flippant as a typical Marvel superhero, but the darkness and violence around her make her sarcasm read more as a survival trait than a means of merely being irreverent.

“Jessica Jones” was edgy enough to have merch at Hot Topic. Indeed, Netflix/Disney came up with a new brand for the Netflix shows under the banner “Marvel Knights,” indicating that it was a very separate corner of the MCU than that of the franchise’s four-quadrant, PG-13-rated movies.

The character of Luke Cage first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1972, and he was the first Black superhero to star under his own title. Cage, like Jessica Jones, was redesigned in 2001 for the above-mentioned extra-violent line that Marvel was trying. Indeed, Luke Cage eventually married Jessica Jones in the comics.

In the “Luke Cage” TV show created by Cheo Hodari Coker, Mike Colter portrayed Luke as an ex-con with superhuman strength and bulletproof skin. After so many years of fantastical characters like Thor and the Hulk, it felt refreshing to see a superhero with superpowers you could instantly understand. He fought crime and faced wicked crime lords on the streets of Harlem. Rosario Dawson also starred in the “Luke Cage” series, reprising her role from “Daredevil” and “Jessica Jones.” (She also eventually turned up in “Iron Fist” and “The Defenders.”) The villain of “Luke Cage” was played by Mahershala Ali, the Oscar-winning actor who is currently slated to play Blade in an MCU movie. In addition, Alfre Woodard played a local councilwoman seeking to clean up Harlem, while Theo Rossi played a career criminal named Shades.

Like “Daredevil,” “Luke Cage” is an assertively New York-ian series, capturing the tone and geography of Harlem well. Most of the Netflix Marvel shows were well-received by critics, and the small screen allowed showrunners to delve into the lives of less well-known Marvel heroes that might have their fans, but were never A-list characters. Daredevil and Luke Cage might be the best characters of their tier.

Iron Fist, like Luke Cage, was created in the 1970s, but while Luke Cage tapped into the rising popularity of blaxploitation cinema, Iron Fist was derivative of martial arts pictures. In the comics, Iron Fist began his life as Daniel Thomas Rand, a man who trained with Asian monks in the mountains of a fictional nation called K’un-Lun (named after a mountain range from Chinese mythology). Iron Fist’s superpowers were that he could focus his chi energy, allowing him to move super-fast and punch with iron-like fists.

The Netflix “Iron Fist” series was the first of the Netflix Marvel shows that wasn’t well-received. Many critics said it was generic, and that the lead character wasn’t terribly interesting. Danny Rand was played by Finn Jones, and he faced off against the Meachams (Tom Pelphrey, Jessica Stroup, David Wenham), who had friendly and business connections to Rand’s family growing up. Danny also had an ally in Colleen Wang (Jessica Henwick), who lived in New York with him.

Iron Fist has always been something of a weak character, and while the Netflix show was clearly trying to give the character texture, it wasn’t wholly successful. At the very least, the series’ second season was better-received than the first, but neither season made Danny Rand anyone’s favorite character.

Back in the comics, Iron Fist and Luke Cage were often teamed up in the “Heroes for Hire” comic book. So, it felt logical to include both characters in the Netflix universe, and then, of course, to team them up on “The Defenders.”

Just as the MCU films “Iron Man,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Iron Man 2,” “Thor,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” led to “The Avengers,” so too did “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” and “Iron Fist” lead into “The Defenders,” a one-season miniseries that allowed all the characters to meet and interact. The superheroes had already been turning up on one another’s shows occasionally, but this was the first time they were all in the same room(s) together.

The villains of “The Defenders” were a massive criminal ninja clan known as The Hand, led by the evil Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver). Scott Glenn also appeared as Stick, the character who had once trained Daredevil in martial arts and had previously shown up on the “Daredevil” series. There were various sub-leaders of the Hand, naturally called Fingers, as well as a counter-clan called the Chaste, which Stick led. Because “The Defenders” was a crossover event, storytelling took a backseat to fan-placating moments of the characters interacting, not to mention a whole lot of fighting and action. Even though the Netflix Marvel shows sold themselves as a more mature, violent outcropping of the MCU, they still had to abide by the action-forward demands of the superhero genre. “The Defenders” isn’t sophisticated in concept, but many fans felt it was fun.

“The Defenders” was never intended to be an ongoing series, however, so it only ran for a single eight episode season. As of this writing, though, there are no plans to re-team the Defenders in any capacity. Disney has now retaken control of the Netflix Marvel shows, all of which are currently available on Disney+. Daredevil’s presence in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “She-Hulk” indicate that the hard-edged Marvel Knights are kind of no more.

Be that as it may, there’s still one more Netflix Marvel show to discuss.

The Punisher may be one of Marvel’s more notorious characters. Possessed of no powers, the Punisher is armed with an endless supply of guns and takes to the streets to murder bad guys with impunity. The Punisher is the logical end of superhero thinking; how far is dressing in a costume and punching people in the face from just killing everyone? Not far, the Punisher suggests. The Punisher’s skull logo has itself become a symbol used by military enthusiasts, bro-dogs, and right wing cop-supporters the world over, even though the Punisher would hate the people who wield it. Indeed, the character’s creator, Gerry Conway, has taken steps to reclaim the logo for that very reason.

The Punisher had already been featured in three feature films, with Jon Berenthal playing the Netflix iteration. He had already been introduced on “Daredevil” before headlining his own show, which saw him going after a mob lord with a scarred face named Jigsaw (Ben Barnes) … who is not to be confused with the villain of the same name from the “Saw” movies. Aiding the Punisher is his man-in-the-van Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who doesn’t always approve of the antihero’s means of justice.

Critics generally liked “The Punisher” for its ability to push the envelope with its violence — one cannot really make a Punisher story without making it R-rated — but objected to its simplicity. Because the Punisher has such a clear-cut M.O., it can be hard to tell a complex story with the character. He functions best when one recalls that he operates in the same universe as more whimsical heroes like Spider-Man. To date, Spider-Man and the Punisher have yet to meet each other in live-action.

While one can indeed watch each show in its entirety, it would be wiser to let the story build as it was on Netflix. That means breaking up each individual show and revisiting characters as the Marvel Knights universe is expanded. Here, then, is the full broadcast order of the Marvel Netflix series: 

• Daredevil (Season 1)
• Jessica Jones (Season 1)
• Daredevil (Season 2) 
• Luke Cage (Season 1)
• Iron Fist (Season 1)
• The Defenders
• The Punisher (Season 1)
• Jessica Jones (Season 2)
• Luke Cage (Season 2)
• Iron Fist (Season 2)
• Daredevil (Season 3)
• Jessica Jones (Season 3)
• The Punisher (Season 2)

Again, this way, the story will grow more organically.

In 2022, all of these shows were removed from Netflix because the streamer’s license with Disney had run out. As mentioned, the series moved over to Disney+, but by then, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige had already launched a new set of MCU-connected TV shows that he considered to be “more official” than the Netflix series. The canonical connections Netflix had to Disney kind of evaporated, save for Daredevil, who was popular enough to be included in both the MCU’s films and new Disney+ series. These shows mostly all feature characters from the MCU’s films, with characters like Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Echo being introduced as well.

Berenthal is additionally slated to return as the Punisher in “Daredevil: Born Again.” So, while the Marvel Knights aren’t all dead, the reversion of the Netflix shows back to Disney more or less spelled out their canonical demise, which was a pity to fans. Luckily, all of the shows are still available to be watched.