A Marvel executive has said Netflix's Daredevil show, which ran from 2015 to 2018, is now considered MCU canon.
Speaking to Screen Rant, Marvel Cinematic Universe executive producer Brad Winderbaum said he considers the show to be MCU canon just as the likes of Charlie Cox's Daredevil and Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin becomes prominent once again.
Adding further evidence, the latest trailer for Echo, the MCU show debuting on January 9, includes footage of the Netflix show. This can be watched below.
Daredevil was the first Marvel Netflix show and a series long-considered unrelated to the MCU. It ran for three seasons, with 13, hour-long episodes each. Cox played Daredevil in this series, so questions were raised when he appeared as the same character in the MCU, followed by D'Onofrio's Kingpin.
With the concept of the multiverse now established in comic book films, however, and Cox himself saying the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again MCU show won't be a continuation, fans assumed the Netflix series to be a completely separate entity. Marvel did too, apparently, though not anymore.
"I can say that up until this point, we've been a little bit cagey about what's Sacred Timeline, what's not Sacred Timeline," Winderbaum said, with "Sacred Timeline" referring to canon content.
"That was born of, frankly, a period at the studio where we were like, 'We have to stick the landing with the vendors.' It was another part of the company developing the Netflix stuff. We were aware of what they were doing, they were aware of what we were doing, but there was a lot to balance anyway.
"But now that some time has passed; now that we see actually how well integrated the stories are, I think that I personally, Brad Winderbaum, would be confident in saying it is part of the Sacred Timeline."
This declaration adds another 39 hours of required watching to what's widely considered an already bloated MCU offering, with even Bob Iger, CEO of Marvel owner Disney, saying the volume of shows has "diluted focus and attention". This is evidenced by the recently completed Phase 4 lasting 54 hours and 40 minutes compared to Phase 1's 12 hours and 24 minutes.
Though Winderbaum didn't mention the other Netflix shows, these are now presumably MCU canon too, given they're canon to the Daredevil series as Cox's character teams up with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist in another show The Defenders.
While this series only ran for eight episodes, Jessica Jones had 39 episodes across three seasons, Luke Cage had 26 across two, Iron Fist had 23 across two, and another spin-off, The Punisher, had 26 across two as well.
All of these shows also have hour long episodes, meaning the MCU seemingly just got 161 hours longer. This comes as Marvel fans are already struggling to stay up to date, as the latest film, The Marvels, had the worst box office numbers so far despite positive critical reception.
Cox is set to return in Echo before appearing in his own, dedicated show Daredevil: Born Again. This was put on hold pending a creative reboot in October 2023, however, though Marvel found a new showrunner later that month.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
