With Daredevil: Born Again ramping up for its second season, in which Krysten Ritter is set to return as Jessica Jones, Marvel fans are turning their attention back to the first three seasons of Daredevil, as well as the series Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders. Fans can find those shows on Disney+ today, but back when they premiered, they were only available on Netflix and so many still refer to those shows as “Netflix shows.”
According to producer Jeph Loeb, that’s a misnomer. A legendary comic book writer, best known for the influential Batman: The Long Halloween, Loeb served as the showrunner for Marvel Television, overseeing Daredevil and the other shows produced in those days before Disney+. For that reason, Loeb downplayed the role Netflix played in the series’ production.
“One thing that I’d love to clear up,” he recently told Newsarama; “while it’s an easy shorthand to call them the ‘Netflix’ heroes – the plain truth is Netflix was our network. They aired the shows that then Marvel Television created, produced, wrote, cast, shot, edited, scored, etc.–hours and hours of some of the most brilliant people who worked on those shows for Marvel TV.”
Those Netflix series began with Daredevil in 2015, well after the launch of the MCU with 2008’s Iron Man, when Marvel was still riding high on the success of The Avengers. As the head of Marvel Television, Loeb worked with the Disney-owned network ABC for Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD (2013-2020) and Agent Carter (2015-2016), as well as the ill-fated miniseries Inhumans (2017). But those shows were clearer extensions of the MCU.
