Why The Defenders Was So Disappointing
The Defenders was supposed to be television's team-up answer to the Avengers movies, but the Marvel crossover event ended up being largely disappointing despite its best intentions. Netflix partnered with Marvel to make shows featuring a handful of Marvel's street-level characters, who were considered (at the time) to be too violent for the PG-13 audience the MCU catered to. The idea was that the Netflix Marvel shows could be darker and grittier than their cinematic counterparts, staying true to their source material.
Marvel followed the MCU's Phase 1 movie template for the heroes in The Defenders. Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and perhaps most well-known, Daredevil, all got individual series to introduce the characters in their own stories. Daredevil was the first show out of the gate in April 2015, followed quickly by Jessica Jones in the fall. Luke Cage premiered in April 2016, and Iron Fist made his debut in March 2017. The Marvel heroes then came together for a team-up show, The Defenders.
Related: Daredevil & All Marvel Crossovers: Every Character In Multiple Shows
Similar to Iron Man, Daredevil season 2 was released before the team-up crossover series, with The Defenders airing in August 2017. Various creative decisions and other reasons though turned what was once a highly anticipated TV event into a commercial and artistic disappointment. All the Marvel series got one more season each following The Defenders, as well as a couple of seasons of The Punisher (after the character's introduction in Daredevil season 2). The failure of The Defenders, though, spelled the beginning of the end for the Netflix shows. Here's why.
When the Marvel Netflix shows that would result in The Defenders were first announced
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