After 11 Years, It's Officially the End of an Era for Marvel's NetflixVerse

Marvel's NetflixVerse is at the end of an era after a new release in the ever-expanding MCU. During its original run on Netflix, the Defenders Saga existed largely separate from the main MCU timeline before it was integrated into the greater franchise during the Multiverse Saga. These two stories will continue to become more entangled with each other in 2026.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day features Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle/Punisher in a supporting role alongside Tom Holland's Peter Parker. This is the first time a character from Netflix's Defenders Saga has played a major supporting role in an MCU movie, expanding beyond the material that was shown on Netflix from 2015 to 2019.

Netflix's Defenders Saga operated separately from the movies in the MCU during its four-year run, with only fleeting references to the broader stories in the streaming shows. The two stories did not interact until the end of 2021, when Charlie Cox made a cameo as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Vincent D'Onofrio returned as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in Hawkeye on Disney+.

From there, Cox returned as Daredevil in two episodes of 2022's She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, using a red-and-yellow suit instead of his classic all-red threads. Next, both he and D'Onofrio reprised their roles in 2024's Echo; Cox had a small cameo in the first episode (which took place during The Blip), and D'Onofrio played a key role in the last two episodes, reuniting with his adoptive niece. 

The culmination of this move came in Daredevil: Born Again, bringing Cox and D'Onofrio back in an intense New York City-set story across its two seasons (with a third on the way). Jon Bernthal also reprised his role as Frank Castle in this series before leading the way in his own Disney+ Special Presentation (The Punisher: One Last Kill) and now in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day features Peter Parker in a street-level narrative, fighting a horde of terrifying new enemies and interacting with MCU regulars like the Punisher and the Hulk, all while rebuilding his life after Doctor Strange's memory-wiping spell.

Next Steps for the MCU's NetflixVerse Integration

After Bernthal's breakthrough into the MCU's movie slate, the question is which other Netflix-based characters could do the same or get their own MCU movie.

The most popular choice is arguably Charlie Cox's Daredevil, who earned rave reviews for his appearance in No Way Home and already has some believing he will return for Brand New Day. Having been the face of the Defenders Saga, the time seems right for Matt Murdock to get his own solo movie, especially after his identity was revealed in Born Again's most recent season.

Many are also eager to see D'Onofrio's Kingpin make his way to the big screen, although rights issues have made this move difficult to navigate. Specifically, D'Onofrio has campaigned multiple times for Kingpin and Spider-Man to face off in a movie, bringing one of the most notable hero/villain pairings from the comics to the big screen.

This could also give Marvel a chance to make a lower-budget big-screen movie, as the Defenders characters require less VFX work and can be shot much more practically than other franchises like Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Fantastic Four. It could focus much more on action (similar to other hits like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and give the movies a grittier, more grounded feel than the rest of the franchise.

However, the biggest challenge in making this happen is that Disney has not found success with moves like this recently, as evidenced by the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu. While The Mandalorian was one of the franchise's biggest streaming hits, it underwhelmed in theaters, becoming one of the lowest-grossing Star Wars movies ever. While Daredevil and other Marvel characters already have a large fan base from their time in the comics and on Netflix, there's no guarantee that this will translate into box office success.