Today, at the Television Critics Association press tour, Netflix CCO Ted Sarandos talked in detail about his company’s collaborations with Marvel, from the forthcoming Jessica Jones to series much further down the line.
Readers might recall that the original plan when Netflix announced its partnership with Marvel was to have four different heroes introduced in freshman seasons of their own shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist) before bringing them together for The Defenders, an Avengers-style team-up series. Given that Netflix and Marvel are fast-tracking a second season of Daredevil in the wake of overwhelming acclaim and high ratings for the first, however, that no longer seems to be the case.
Sarandos explained:
“I think ideally there will be a rhythm of about every six months you’ll get a new season or a new series from the Defenders group. And then they’ll crossover into a combined [Defenders] season once we’ve launched the first season of each of the four characters.”
Essentially, what that boils down to is that, if a show is successful, they’ll absolutely make more seasons of it as soon as possible, knowing that The Defenders can realistically wait until whenever the time is right. “Some will selectively have multiple seasons as they come out of the gate,” Sarandos elaborated. “So they’ll probably be two launches a year.”
[zerg]With that in mind, what about Jessica Jones? Sarandos’ comments suggest that we’ll see the series in October, though at the very least it will arrive before the end of the year. Of course, Jessica Jones finished rolling cameras three days ago and well on its way to completion – fans are naturally more curious about what’s still shrouded in mystery. In this case, only Iron Fist remains totally unconfirmed in terms of its cast and showrunner. Asked when we can expect to see news on that front, Sarandos said,”Hopefully soon,” adding, “It’s always a little extra complex with Marvel in announcing things.”
Still, Sarandos has high hopes for Netflix’s partnership with the studio extending long into the future. With The Punisher factoring into Daredevil‘s second season, Sarandos even acknowledged the possibility of spinoff series or Netflix Original Movies related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “It is possible for sure. That’s the beauty of the Marvel universe,” he said related to a Punisher series starring Jon Bernthal. “Any of them could spin out into films too.”
In other Netflix and Marvel news, albeit of a much less concrete variety, outlets are already speculating about what a “Phase Two” of Marvel television series could look like. And one such outlet, The Hashtag Show, reckons that it’s already figured out what one of those planned series could be (take this with a healthy pinch of salt). According to the show (via CBM), Marvel has paid attention to the incredible fan fever surrounding Suicide Squad and hopes to turn out its own supervillain-squadron series with a show based around The Thunderbolts.
For those not totally fluent in Marvelese, The Thunderbolts are a team of reformed supervillains including figures like Baron Zemo (appearing in Captain America: Civil War), Punisher (appearing in Daredevil season 2) and Elektra. On paper, it makes sense that Marvel would consider a series based around them after seeing the reaction to DC’s Suicide Squad. But when you look at the source, there’s a spotty track record at play – though The Hashtag Show correctly reported some Avengers: Age of Ultron scoopage early on, it also claimed Matthew McConaughey was playing Norman Osborn in the Spider-Man reboot, which currently appears to be far less than legitimate.
So, until we get any official confirmation on plans beyond The Defenders, it’s advisable to take that report with a big grain of salt. But in the meantime, tell us, how do you feel about the possibility of a Thunderbolts TV show? Sound off below.