Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ Watch Order: All 13 Seasons
The MCU is a vast universe – nay, multiverse. While we focus on the grand scheme of things, and those universe-expanding cosmic battles always catch our eye the most, the MCU goes all the way down to the street-level heroes and villains. Oh yes, the Marvel shows (formerly) on Netflix that we all enjoyed, and that created the ‘Defenders’ actually happen within the MCU.
For some of you, you’ve probably missed them if you focused only on the MCU movies and Disney+ shows. And, if you just start watching each series individually, one by one, you might get confused with the storyline – because the series intertwine, and the timeline should be followed as the seasons of each particular show were released chronologically.
Don’t worry, though – I’ve got you covered. I’m bringing you the ultimate Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ watch order – the best way to watch all of these shows, some of which were canceled way too early, in my humble opinion. Bear with me, as some shows (and some seasons of certain shows) are not that good, but others – and the story overall – are quite epic. Enjoy!
Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ shows in order by release date
If you want to dive straight into watching these shows without having to listen to me elaborate all that much, here’s the best order to watch Marvel’s ‘Defenders’:
- ‘Daredevil’ Season 1
- ‘Jessica Jones’ Season 1
- ‘Daredevil’ Season 2
- ‘Luke Cage’ Season 1
- ‘Iron Fist’ Season 1
- ‘The Defenders’ Season 1
- ‘The Punisher’ Season 1
- ‘Jessica Jones’ Season 2
- ‘Luke Cage’ Season 2
- ‘Iron Fist’ Season 2
- ‘Daredevil’ Season 3
- ‘The Punisher’ Season 2
- ‘Jessica Jones’ Season 3
The order you’re looking at on the list above is actually the release order in which the shows and their particular seasons came out. Over the next few chapters, I’ll explain why this is important and how the storylines intertwine to give this particular order the best viewership experience. Bear in mind there will be spoilers ahead!
Are Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ shows connected? What’s the best order to watch them?
As I’ve mentioned, every show on this list is connected to one another, as they create a mini street-level universe within the bigger-picture MCU. Now that all these shows and their seasons have long been released, you might be tempted to binge one series, the other, and the third until you’ve watched them all.
While watching Marvel’s ‘Defenders,’ that way can be done – and some seasons work great as stand-alone storylines – you might get confused about the chronological order of the events transpiring in the shows.
That’s why I believe that this entire mini-franchise within the MCU is best viewed not show-by-show but rather season-by-season, as they were coming out. If you watch it that way, the storyline actually flows chronologically instead of jumping back and forth, as it would if you watched Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ show-by-show. I’ll explain this in detail in the next chapter.
Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ shows in chronological order
You probably already figured out that watching Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ show-by-show does not give you a chronological order. Instead, you should watch everything as it came out – and as I’ve broken down in the list above. Why, you might ask?
If you watch Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ show-by-show, you’ll lose out on the viewership experience. For instance, Luke Cage was introduced in ‘Jessica Jones’ Season 1. If you’ve already watched the entire ‘Luke Cage’ series before watching ‘Jessica Jones’ – his entire introduction would be redundant to you.
Or, if you missed ‘Jessica Jones’ and went straight into watching ‘Luke Cage’ – then you might be like – who is this guy, and why do we not know anything about him?
The same goes for the Punisher – Frank Castle gets his backstory in ‘Daredevil’ Season 2. If you missed that before watching ‘The Punisher’ series, you’ll miss out on Castle’s story, which is essentially the whole source of his motivation in ‘The Punisher’ series. For that alone, the entire show can seem rather off to you if you aren’t acquainted with who Frank is and why he does what he does.
Those are just a couple of examples on top of my mind, but the point is, if you watch an entire Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ show and then go on to the next, the timeline will be janky for you and jump back and forth, forcing you to piece the timeline together as you go.
If you watch them season-by-season as they were released, the timeline flows seamlessly, so you’ll get the best experience watching the shows.
Where to watch Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ shows?
As you might know, all of these shows were formerly referred to as Marvel’s Netflix shows because Netflix was, indeed, the producer of these series. However, that mantle doesn’t really work anymore because neither of the shows is still on Netflix.
After Disney bought Marvel Studios, all these shows arrived on their own streaming platform, Disney+. So, if you have Netflix and wish to watch Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ shows, I’m sorry to break it to you, but all of them are now available exclusively on Disney+.
Naturally, you can always find them to buy/rent on Blu-Ray on the usual platforms, such as Google Play, Amazon, etc.
Will there be more Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ shows?
In this particular setting and this particular format, the answer is no – there won’t be any more Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ shows. However, some of the characters did get a proper, full introduction into the bigger-picture MCU. Like, for instance, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil.
Not only did Cox appear as Daredevil in both the movies and TV shows within the MCU (‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and ‘She-Hulk,’ respectively) – he is also getting his own new show as well.
The new show will be conveniently titled ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ and will be released in spring 2024. The title is a reference to a famous Daredevil storyline from the comics but also works great as a reinvigoration of this iteration of Daredevil, whose show on Netflix was canceled after three successful seasons.
So, if Daredevil is not only getting cameos in the MCU but also his own new show, who’s to say that the rest of the Defenders – or at least some of them – aren’t getting their own return in the future of the MCU as well. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, or Frank Castle in ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
Until it’s officially confirmed, or until the show comes out and we actually see them, I guess we’ll have to settle with Matt Murdock only.
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