Netflix has bagged a super-powered partnership with Disney-owned Marvel Studios and will be developing five new and exclusive series to begin in 2015.
The live-action shows will be based on Marvel comic properties Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and The Defenders.
After the instant success of the televised Avengers spin-off Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Marvel was quick to hit the comic conventions announcing it would be developing more of its properties but was not forward in revealing exactly who or when and where these shows will air. We now have the big news and are pleased to see that some of our previously overlooked favourites will be making the leap to screen.
Online streaming company Netflix has now announced that each of the four main shows will run for 13 episodes each and will be set in the Hell’s Kitchen district of New York, with the blind but radar-sensed crime fighter Daredevil leading the charge and a fifth show will be a mini-series which unites all four characters who team-up as The Defenders.
Of the five, it’s the most well-known Daredevil – aka ‘The Man Without Fear’ – who has been in much need of a reboot since last hitting screens in the critically panned 2003 movie which starred the future Batman, Ben Affleck.
Netflix has proven it has potential to draw audiences away from mainstream television networks with a series of successful original programming including Hemlock Grove and has the power to recruit star talent with a prime example being Hollywood veteran and one-time Lex Luthor, Kevin Spacey appearing in the Netflix-developed House of Cards.
The question which now stands is who will play these iconic comic characters in their Marvel/Netflix screen debuts?