Marvel’s ‘The Defenders’ Shows Leaving Netflix on March 1st

Marvel fans have some shocking news today: All Defenders Series are set to leave Netflix in March 2022.

As of February 11th, 2022 every single season of Netflix’s Defenders franchise is showing removal notices in select circumstances. These notices are only displayed when you watch the first episode of a series on your profile.

Netflix confirmed that the series would be ending on March 1, and that rights to the show have been reverted to Disney.

These Marvel titles show removal dates, and are due to depart on March 1.

• Daredevil (Seasons 1 & 3).
• Jessica Jones (Seasons 1-3)
• Luke Cage (Seasons 1 & 2)
• Iron Fist (Seasons 1 & 2)
• The Defenders (Limited series)
• The Punisher (Seasons 1 & 2)

This content was removed from over 160 episodes in a span of four years. Daredevil season 1, first aired on Netflix April 2015.

Every single Marvel show on Netflix had been canceled by February 2019. Jessica Jones, season 3, was the last title from the Marvel partnership.

Netflix's news that these shows are leaving is disappointing. They have not yet found their footing with comic book franchises like Millarworld, but there is plenty of help through partnerships with DC Comics, Boom Studios and Dark Horse Comics.

Netflix is leaving The Defenders Series.

The news shouldn’t come as a huge shock given that Disney has now started using the characters from the Netflix Marvel shows in its other properties. We saw Kingpin on Disney+'s Hawkeye, and Matthew Murdock (Daredevil), made an appearance briefly in Spider-Man 2: No Way Home.

In 2018, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that they had been aggressively reducing licensing for other companies. He stated these words during an earnings conference:

“We are fully committed to not only bringing the product to market and making it a long-term success. It has to be the destination for all Disney stuff, and that means ultimately weaning ourselves of our product being available any other place except for our linear channels,”

Back in 2017, Netflix notably lost out to all of Disney’s movies where it had previously held the first window rights for a select number of years.

Disney has a long way to go before it can reclaim all its property from Netflix. Titles from ABC, Freeform and 20th Century Fox are still available on Netflix, as well as FX and FX series.

It is not known why these titles were removed March 1, 2022.

You can view below the notices for removal that Netflix has posted on each show:

Removal notice on Jessica Jones

Removal notice on The Punisher

Removal notice on Daredevil

Next, where will The Defenders series stream on Netflix?

As Netflix has confirmed the rights are reverting back to Disney it’ll be up to them to decide where the shows stream next.

Internationally the show will likely soon appear on Disney+ given that’s currently the home of all things Marvel. In the United States, we could see it either being split between Hulu and Disney+ or exclusive to Hulu given that is where most of Marvel’s older-skewing content has landed in recent years.

Will you miss Marvel’s Defenders series when they leave Netflix? Comment below.