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The companies call this an “unprecedented deal” and “Marvel‘s most ambitious foray yet into live-action TV storytelling.” Disney will provide Netflix with live action serie
s and a miniseries featuring Marvel characters Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage set in the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Netflix has committed to at least four, 13-episode series over “multiple years,” beginning in 2015, culminating with a miniseries, The Defenders, that “reimagines a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters.” The arrangement, which involves some 60 episodes produced by Marvel TV and ABC Studios, 
grew out of the deal that will give Netflix exclusive rights to Disney films in the premium TV window beginning in 2016. It is “unparalleled in its scope and size, and reinforces our commitment to deliver Marvel’s brand, content and characters across all platforms of storytelling,” says Marvel Entertainment President Alan Fine. Also unprecedented was the secrecy surrounding the packa
ge. As we reported last month, breaking the news of Marvel shopping the four series and mini to Netflix and a couple of other VOD and cable players, no one was allowed to breathe a word, with the seller, all potential buyers and everyone else involved allegedly bound by strict confidentiality agreements. Committing to 60 episodes off the bat is a big undertaking but would help a new to scripted programming player like Netflix that is looking to quickly build up a slate and want to capitalize on the Marvel brand. Said Netflix Chief Conten
t Officer Ted Sarandos, “Marvel is a known and loved brand that travels.” There had been talk of another Daredevil movie while Marvel TV first developed Jessica Jones as a series for ABC but it didn’t move past the development stage. The company’s first live-action series for Disney, ABC’s Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., premiered this fall and has been picked up for a full season. It has been a very strong performer in DVR/steaming viewing, hinting at the potential of other Marvel series on a service like Netflix. Here’s the release on the deal, brokered by CAA:
BURBANK, Calif., Nov. 7, 2013 – The Walt Disney Co. (Marvel is a known and loved brand that travels,” sNYSE: DIS) and Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) today announced an unprecedented deal for Marvel TV to bring multiple original series of live-action adventures of four of Marvel’s most popular characters exclusively to the world’s leading Internet TV Network beginning in 2015. This pioneering agreement calls for Marvel to develop four serialized programs leading to a miniseries programming event.
Led by a series focused on “Daredevil,” followed by “Jessica Jones,” “Iron Fist” and “Luke Cage,” the epic will unfold over multiple years of original programming, taking Netflix members deep into the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell’s Kitchen, New York. Netflix has committed to a minimum of four, thirteen episodes series and a culminating Marvel’s “The Defenders” mini-series event that reimagines a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters.
Produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Television Studios, this groundbreaking deal is Marvel’s most ambitious foray yet into live-action TV storytelling.
“This deal is unparalleled in its scope and size, and reinforces our commitment to deliver Marvel’s brand, content and characters across all platforms of storytelling. Netflix offers an incredible platform for the kind of rich storytelling that is Marvel’s specialty,” said Alan Fine, President of Marvel Entertainment. “This serialized epic expands the narrative possibilities of on-demand television and gives fans the flexibility to immerse themselves how and when they want in what’s sure to be a thrilling and engaging adventure.”
“Marvel’s movies, such as ‘Iron Man’ and Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’, are huge favorites on our service around the world. Like Disney, Marvel is a known and loved brand that travels,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “With ‘House of Cards’ and our other original series, we have pioneered new approaches to storytelling and to global distribution and we’re thrilled to be working with Disney and Marvel to take our brand of television to new levels with a creative project of this magnitude.”
This new original TV deal follows last year’s landmark movie distribution deal through which, beginning with 2016 theatrically released feature films, Netflix will be the exclusive U.S. subscription television service for first-run, live-action and animated movies from the Walt Disney Studios, including titles from Disney, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Studios, Disneynature and Lucasfilm. Netflix members can currently enjoy a wide range of Disney, ABC TV and Disney Channel films and shows across the 41 countries where Netflix operates.
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Pretty big deal, to put it mildly.
Marvel hasn’t even introduced these series yet, and they’re already thinking about the big game.
By which I mean they’ve transferred their plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to television, via Netflix.
Meet the Marvel Televised Universe. with individual series based upon Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Daredevil and Jessica Jones, culminating in The Defenders.
DC, unless you get your asses in gear, you’re about to be trumped by The House of Ideas. Again.
Or they could be just jumping the gun like with Star Wars.
Yeah, if only DC would try television. Like, say, Arrow, Constatine, Gotham Central, Hourman…
Yeah, and could you tell me how any of those series are parts of a unified whole? Other than being owned by DC Comics/Warner Bros, that is.
You can’t because they don’t (as far as anyone is aware). Because Marvel Studios has done what no one has done before in movies, and they’re doing the same with TV.
And what’s most remarkable is that they’re ahead of DC, and they haven’t released any of their series yet.
Way ahead of DC. They’ve made announcements of their TV shows, and DC only has theirs on the air.
And because the series are part of a unified whole it is somehow better? These individual movies/tv show seek to tell the best possible stories and reinventing characters over and over again such that these characters can be interpreted differently.
I don’t see how The Dark Knight trilogy can exist in Man of Steel, neither will anyone say that TDK trilogy was a mistake, because it isn’t
You do realize that you only named ONE tv show. The rest are proposed potential pilots and DC has a history of pilots going absolutely nowhere. Case in point, “Amazon” has had two writers and zero activity going on almost 2 years. Even if DC had one more or all of them on the air it’s not as well orchestrated as this is. This has never been done before. Marvel is blazing a trail yet again!
Arrow: a two-bit Batman knockoff who’s plundering villains from other comics (Deathstroke, Ra’s al Ghul). Which isn’t to say it’s a bad show.
Gotham Central: A Batman show without Batman. LOL. Might be good, but still far from being part of a unified whole. They can’t use the big guy because he’s tied up in the Man of Steel sequel.
Constantine: Not really part of the mainstream continuity; at best he might show up in the occasional Justice League arc when they go after a supernatural baddie. Otherwise he pretty much sticks to his own little corner of the DCU. Don’t expect the show to be any different.
Hourman: We hardly know anything about the show yet, but it’s probably going to be its own thing unconnected to the other shows. I hope it’s not, but even being on the CW doesn’t give me much hope for Arrow crossovers.
None of these shows are connected to the film universe, which currently consists of … Superman and Batman. They can’t get a Wonder Woman film made because, despite being one of their most iconic characters, almost nobody in the moviegoing public knows much about her. They made Green Lantern into a flop and will probably have to do a reboot.
Meanwhile, Marvel, after selling off the rights to their three most recognizable properties (Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four) took their second-stringers (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Captain America) and gave them solo flicks PLUS a team-up movie and are planning to do a big-budget CGI-heavy feature starring a guy who’s a tree and a talking raccoon with a gun fetish. And oh yeah, they have FIVE TV shows and a mini-series in development ALL OF WHICH ARE PART OF THE SAME SHARED UNIVERSE.
DC had the foundation for an awesome shared TV universe in Smallville and they let it drop. Arrow, while a pretty good show, is too grounded to coexist with the Man of Steel universe – plus I’m pretty sure Starling City residents would have heard about the Kryptonian invasion and had something to say about it by now.
Brian, you don’t have to use different names just to make a point.
Sure you can have a shared universe now, but how adaptable are these characters to other interpretation?
DC characters have been reinterpreted tons of times and there are a zillion versions of these iconic characters. They’re adaptable to times.
Thats not to say Marvel is doing a bad job, but just because something is part of a shared universe does not make it good. Use that tiny brain of yours.
Hooray! Luke and Jessica are an amazing couple. They have one of Marvel’s best romances.
So much for the Daredevil theatrical?
Was never gonna happen while Marvel is at Disney. No Daredevil, no Punisher, no Ghostrider… Unless they get licensed by another company like Lionsgate those properties won’t be on the big screen because they are way too violent for Disney. Not to mention I don’t think Marvel wants to be releasing more than two films a year, the market is already saturated. Dumb them down, shitck them up, and they can be a network styled show.
Daredevil makes a LOT more sense as a TV show than a movie. He’s a lawyer and a superhero; that’s a natural TV hook. And these particular heroes have low-grade powers which don’t require tons of big screen-style special effects. Since there are ten quality TV shows for every quality movie these days, this is about the best news Daredevil fans could reasonably hope for. It actually seems weird to me that anyone would still be thinking movies are better than TV (unless a concept’s sheer scope calls for a film treatment). That notion seems at least a decade or two out of date.
This is still Disney. They own these characters. Marvel TV is producing this so it’s not as if they were licensed out to Netflix.
Sounds cool if it holds the integrity that most Marvel properties have up to this point. And if it’s got more going for it than SHIELD which continues to stagnate unwatched beyond the pilot in the ol’ DVR.
Do yourself a favor and just watch the most recent episode. Just that one. The show stumbled pretty bad out of the gate, but it’s been picking up in quality and IMO stands pretty strong now.
With WB all over town selling DC shows to every network, Disney has to step up and compete. (Amell teasing the Justice League on his Facebook page yesterday probably spooked them as well.)
That’s idiotic. Yeah they jumped into a deal overnight based on a tweeted picture.
They’ve been planning this for a while brainiac
You’re implying a Facebook post from Steven Amell spooked Disney/Marvel? LOL
Please tell me this Superhero crapfest has almost run its course.
Well, based on the above information, clearly it has not.
As long as people pay to see as you put it this “Superhero crapfest” Disney/Marvel with crank them out. Remember Disney is an entertainment company and they are entertaining the customers.
Now if you want the Hollywood artsy stuff there are plenty of studios that offer that, but, Disney is in the fantasy business. Personally I can’t wait for Thor: The Dark World, I’ll see it tomorrow.
I don’t think Marvel/Disney pay Amell or CW’s Arrow any attention as the show barely averages two million viewers and it’s ratings have sunk compared to the first season. They aren’t worried.
DC/Warner Bros. may be off selling their products to networks but there’s no guarantees any of those shows will go beyond the script stage, they are the ones who should be worried. Man of Steel was moderate hit, despite Warner touting it as a success. Their next property isn’t on screen for another year and a half and they have made absolutely no traction on any of the other heroes in their database.
It’s not a competition but if it were Marvel would have already won.
” they have made absolutely no traction on any of the other heroes in their database.”
I think they’ve done pretty well with that guy, what’s his name, the one that dresses like a bat. Oh, right, Guyinbatcostume.
“DC/Warner Bros. may be off selling their products to networks but there’s no guarantees any of those shows will go beyond the script stage”
Gotham was ordered to series.
Ehh, this doesn’t exactly trump what DC is doing in the TV department.
What, with Arrow and Teen Titans Go?
No, with Arrow, the Flash series, Jim Gordon Gotham, and he Hourman series all in progress
You mean like “Amazon” is? Err…I mean was. Or maybe like the multiple Justice League films that fell apart? Or the Aquaman pilot that didn’t get picked up?
“Series in progress” is completely different from this production deal. This is done. Ink is dry. These are happening and the scope is beyond a spec script on an EXTREMLY low rated network like The CW.
You can’t compare the two. I like Arrow a lot, it’s well done but this is above and beyond Arrow. One tv series or five tv series it’s not a creative orchestration like this.
oh yeah those are heavy hitters. Hourman makes Iron Fist look A list lol
Only Arrow has gotten out of development hell.
Trump DC? DC has a tween series that gets no ratings and is not based in any continuity besides its own. Then they have some very low rated animation programs. Their movie slate is equally as desperate. Superman was a bomb compared to Marvel films and Nolan’s films were only successful because they pretty much reinvented everything from the ground up.
Marvel is continuing to build out their unified cinematic/TV universe that grows in popularity with every expansion of their brand. The only thing holding them back are the contracts giving major characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and X-Men to other studios.
DC is pretty much Marvel in the 90s. A huge mess of incohesive ideas that do not fit into any type of big picture.
In other words, Disney and Marvel are using Netflix as a dumping ground for superheroes not worthy enough of being in the movies.
Just you wait, Star Wars Detours will be Netflix’s next pick-up.
That’s funny, that’s the same thing people said about Iron Man.
TV’s much more lucrative than film and has been for a while; it pulls in about twice as much per year than the big screen – and that’s not counting original online content such as Orange is the New Black and House of Cards.
If anything, film’s a dumping ground for concepts that don’t have the legs to go 100 episodes.
Excellent! Can’t wait!
Hear that? That’s the sound of DC going the way of Blockbuster.
Gotta love the Marvel zombies who think that four new shows from their camp is somehow a larger number than the four new shows from WB/DC announced so far. 4>4 I guess. LOL.
If you run into any Marvel zombies at the Walmart checkout aisle counting back your change, you might want to double check their math.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., despite plummeting ratings, still cleared 7 million viewers in its last episode, plus it gets huge DVR and on-demand numbers.
Arrow (which is a damn good show, BTW) barely clears 2 million on a good day.
The new DC shows are in development and may not get picked up to series or even to pilot, while Marvel’s Netflix offerings already have full season orders. That’s 60 new GUARANTEED episodes vs. 0.
Avengers pulled in well over a billion and a half in worldwide gross while Man of Steel (a fantastic movie by the way) fell short of 700 million worldwide. Hell, even Iron Man 3 broke a billion.
tl;dr: I can’t hear you over the sound of how much Marvel is kicking DC’s ass.
Marvel TV did this deal for the money. Plain and simple. Agents of SHIELD is mediocre and not performing to expectations. We’ll see if Marvel can create sustainable efforts via TV and Netflix. My thinking is it won’t. The people who are running this business for Marvel and Disney in terms of TV seem inept at delivering mainstream shows with audience power.
It’s not performing to your expectations?! How grandiose that you think that Marvel and ABC are making shows just for you.
How much is Marvel paying you to shill for them? Based on your comments in this thread.
Agents of SHIELD will not deliver the downstream opportunities that they have forecasted for…my guess is ABC is likely only going to support the show for 3 years. It won’t even make syndication. My guess as to why there won’t be major character on TV is Marvel Studios won’t let them. Over the next few years, we will see the fight internally over who gets to do what.
Inept based off of… what? Six episodes of their first effort? Come on…
And of course they did it for the money! They’re a FUNCTIONING BUISINESS
Where is The Punisher?
Great news. But where’s the Peggy Carter series that got teased?
I see a lot of comments about the expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that connection is conspicuously absent from the press announcement itself. I wonder if this will be self-contained continuity. That would allow it to have a harder edge and take advantage of the Netflix platform without alienating younger fans of the MCU.
Wave 2 on Netflix:
1.The Punisher
2.Superior Foes of Spider-Man
3.Man-Thing
4.Villains For Hire
This Leads into
5.The Thunderbolts
Do they have live-action TV rights to Spidey?
Cool beans! Three things though:
1. They should staff writer’s liberally from Marvel Comics’ talent pool. Ed Brubaker is an obvious choice. Waid, Rucka, Bendis and loads more should be given a shot at this.
2. Netflix should reconsider their all-in-one season release schedule and dole episodes of each series out week to week – then you could build events and momentum by having these characters interact and meet each other along the way. If you know ahead of time that Cage and Jones meet in episode 7 and you have all 12 from the get-go then its not really as special, you know?
3. How will these series interact with the movies? are they even in the same continuity? (I would think its a big mistake if not). What about ABC’s SHIELD show? it would be interesting for lots of reasons if that show was allowed interact with these characters.
Did Netflix see the unwatchable mess that Agents of SHIELD is?
I wonder how much pressure Disney had to apply to get this deal done, so that they can now cancel that horrible, and probably way too expensive, train-wreck on their own channel.
They probably saw the ratings that SHIELD has.
These shows will be very different. SHIELD is a network show designed to have 20+ mostly self contained episodes on the NCIS/ CSI model. These orders are for cable style shorter seasons with , -Im guessing – tight episode-to-episode (and series-to-series!) continuity and story-arcs. That’s the model that works best for Netflix and its also a model that better suits these characters, imo.
“Any of the other heroes…” as in ones that haven’t been featured in about 16 other movies beforehand. Face it, Warner has failed when it comes to adapting DC properties.
As for action movies, Blonde Squad scheduled for 2014 looks pretty action packed. Lots of gun fights and martial arts.