Marvel Netflix shows, ranked
The Marvel Netflix shows changed the game for Netflix and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Until 2015, the MCU hadn’t veered into the gritty, street-level superhero stories that we saw in Marvel’s Daredevil. Netflix had only released a few hit original shows at that time, and it definitely elevated both brands for the mainstream audience.
In total, there are six Marvel Netflix shows: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher. While the partnership with Netflix and Disney was good for a time, Disney decided to launch its own streaming service, what’s now known as Disney+, and Netflix canceled the Marvel Netflix shows in 2018.
While you can’t watch any of them on Netflix right now, you can watch all six Marvel Netflix shows on Disney+, and it’s not the end of many of these stories. Disney officially greenlit Daredevil: Born Again, and Charlie Cox will return to play Matt Murdock/Daredevil.
With Daredevil: Born Again officially in the works for Disney+, we ranked the Marvel Netflix shows from worst to best.
Here’s the list of the Marvel Netflix shows in order of release:
- Daredevil season 1 (2015)
- Jessica Jones season 1 (2015)
- Daredevil season 2 (2016)
- Luke Cage season 1 (2016)
- Iron Fist season 1 (2017)
- The Defenders (2017)
- The Punisher season 1 (2017)
- Jessica Jones season 2 (2018)
- Luke Cage season 2 (2018)
- Iron Fist season 2 (2018)
- Daredevil season 3 (2018)
- The Punisher season 2 (2019)
- Jessica Jones season 3 (2019)
Let’s get the ranking started with Marvel’s Iron Fist.
6. Marvel’s Iron Fist
- Seasons: 2
- Created by Scott Buck
- Cast: Finn Jones, Jessica Henwick, Tom Pelphrey, Jessica Stroup, Ramón Rodríguez, Sacha Dhawan, Rosario Dawson, David Wenham, Simone Missick, and Alice Eve
Marvel’s Iron Fist comes in last place on the list of the Marvel Netflix shows. The first season of the series premiered on Netflix in 2017, and it just didn’t live up to the hype of the other Marvel Netflix shows. At that point, Marvel and Netflix hadn’t missed. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage were hits, so it was a real bummer when Iron Fist just didn’t do it for fans.
Iron Fist introduced fans to Danny Rand, the son of a billionaire who disappeared in the Himalayas as a child. He was adopted by Buddhist monks and became the Immortal Iron Fist. He, then, returns to New York City and gets involved with the Meachums, his old friends with ties to his parents’ deaths among other bad things.
It’s the first of the Marvel Netflix shows, basically, to introduce magic, and it just didn’t fit, tonally. There were some great aspects to Iron Fist, though. Jessica Henwick was incredible as Colleen Wing, and we really enjoyed her relationship with Simone Missick. This cast is great, but the story just didn’t deliver.
Up next is Marvel’s The Defenders.
5. Marvel’s The Defenders
- Seasons: 1
- Created by Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez
- Cast: Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter, Finn Jones, Eka Darville, Elden Henson, Jessica Henwick, Simone Missick, Ramón Rodríguez, Rachael Taylor, Deborah Ann Woll, Élodie Yung, Rosario Dawson, Scott Glenn, and Sigourney Weaver
Marvel’s The Defenders is the Netflix original limited series that brought all of four Marvel Netflix heroes (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist) together to take down The Hand and save New York City. It was billed to be Netflix’s street-level version of The Avengers, and it just… was not that.
The Defenders aired after the first season of Iron Fist in 2017, and it concluded stories from all four series, but it mostly focused on Daredevil’s history and fight with The Hand, which we saw in the first two seasons of the series.
The only good part of The Defenders was its limited episode count (8 episodes vs. 13 episodes) compared to the other Marvel Netflix shows and some of the moments these four characters shared together on screen. Overall, the story, action sequences, and themes were lacking compared to the other Marvel Netflix shows we’d seen up until that point. Unfortunately, outside of The Punisher, things went downhill for the Marvel Netflix Universe quickly following The Defenders.
4. Marvel’s Jessica Jones
- Seasons: 3
- Created by Melissa Rosenberg
- Cast: Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter, Rachael Taylor, Wil Traval, Erin Moriarty, Eka Darville, Carrie-Anne Moss, David Tennant, J. R. Ramirez, Terry Chen, Leah Gibson, Janet McTeer, Benjamin Walker, Sarita Choudhury, Jeremy Bobb, and Tiffany Mack
Marvel’s Jessica Jones is the second official Marvel Netflix show. It premiered in 2015 after Marvel’s Daredevil, and it tells the story of Jessica Jones, played by Krysten Ritter.
Jessica Jones is an individual with superpowers working as a private investigator in New York City. Jessica was used to kill another person by Kilgrave (David Tennant), another person with powers who can make people do anything he wants them to. Kilgrave returns to Jessica’s life, and things begin to unravel. Jessica does everything she can to stop him.
The first season of Jessica Jones is one of the best seasons of the Marvel Netflix shows. David Tennant is an incredible villain. It definitely showed a different side of the MCU than we’d ever seen before, and Ritter did an excellent job as Jessica Jones. The later seasons suffered a little bit, but it’s still an excellent binge-watch for Marvel fans.
There are plenty of rumors that Ritter is returning as Jessica Jones in Daredevil: Born Again, but so far, nothing has been confirmed.
3. Marvel’s The Punisher
- Seasons: 2
- Created by Steve Lightfoot
- Cast: Jon Bernthal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ben Barnes, Amber Rose Revah, Daniel Webber, Paul Schulze, Jason R. Moore, Michael Nathanson, Jaime Ray Newman, Deborah Ann Woll, Josh Stewart, Floriana Lima, and Giorgia Whigham
Marvel’s The Punisher premiered in 2017 following The Defenders and Iron Fist season 1. Both of those series were letdowns for most Marvel fans, but things got back on track in the explosive first season of The Punisher starring Jon Bernthal.
Fans were introduced to Bernthal’s Frank Castle, also known as the Punisher, in the second season of Marvel’s Daredevil. In the first season of The Punisher, we learn more about Frank Castle and how he became the Punisher. He also uncovers secrets and conspiracies that involve even more people than he thought after getting revenge on those that killed his family.
The Punisher is as dark as it gets for the Marvel Netflix shows. As former special forces, Frank Castle uses a lot of weapons, explosives, and more to get want he wants and get out of jams. If you like action sequences, The Punisher is the show for you, but it’s also a story about a person who has lost everything and will do whatever it takes to hold the people responsible, well, responsible while also bringing the pain.
Bernthal will return as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+.
2. Marvel’s Luke Cage
- Seasons: 2
- Created by Cheo Hodari Coker
- Cast: Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, Simone Missick, Theo Rossi, Erik LaRay Harvey, Rosario Dawson, Alfre Woodard, Gabrielle Dennis, Mustafa Shakir, Jessica Henwick, Finn Jones, and Stephen Rider
Marvel’s Luke Cage is my favorite of all the Marvel Netflix shows. Cheo Hodari Coker, the creative team, and the cast and crew captured magic during the first season. Luke Cage season 1 was great! Some say the quality dropped off in season and later, but seeing Mike Colter, Mahershala Ali, Theo Rossi, and Alfre Woodard going at it was awesome!
In the series, Luke Cage (Colter), also known as Power Man, tries to stop crime and corruption in Harlem. Cage has super strength and impenetrable skin, which makes him a local celebrity and hero after saving people’s lives, but it also makes him a target.
Cottonmouth Stokes (Ali) and Mariah Stokes-Dillard (Woodard) are two of my favorite characters in the Marvel Netflix story.
It’s such a shame Luke Cage was canceled and only got two seasons on Netflix. I would love to see Colter return as Luke Cage in the MCU in future series and movies, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We’ll just have to wait and see if that’s a road the powers that be at Marvel and Disney choose to explore.
1. Marvel’s Daredevil
- Seasons: 3
- Created by Drew Goddard
- Cast: Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Toby Leonard Moore, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Bob Gunton, Ayelet Zurer, Rosario Dawson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jon Bernthal, Élodie Yung, Stephen Rider, Joanne Whalley, Jay Ali, and Wilson Bethel
Marvel’s Daredevil is easily the best of the Marvel Netflix shows. As mentioned, we just had not seen anything like this show on Netflix or the MCU when it premiered in 2015. It was great to veer into more mature themes than the MCU was willing to do, and it worked well in carving out space for these heroes.
In the series, Charlie Cox stars as Matt Murdock, also known as Daredevil. After an incident as a child left him blind and with superpowers, Matt works as a lawyer by day and fights crime as a vigilante at night in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City.
After three seasons on Netflix, Daredevil was canceled, but there’s good news for fans of the series. Disney+ is continuing the series in Daredevil: Born Again. Cox is returning as Matt Murdock, and it’s expected that other Marvel Netflix stars could be involved with the series, which is currently in production right now. We know a few cast members who won’t be in Born Again. There will be 18 episodes in the first season of the series, and it’s expected to premiere sometime in 2024, but we don’t know when just yet.
Stay tuned for more news about Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+. Share your favorite Marvel Netflix show in the comments.