Following its run on Netflix throughout the late 2010s, The Defenders Saga is back on Disney+ with The Punisher: One Last Kill, which continues a runtime issue from Daredevil: Born Again. From the moment that Marvel Studios announced plans to reboot Netflix's Defenders heroes, villains, and shows for Disney+, there was a perfect medium of excitement and concern, namely over how they would adapt these tales to the wider MCU and the modern streaming market. Daredevil: Born Again already realized some of these fears with reduced episode counts and shorter runtimes, and, as a one-off special succeeding an entire TV series, One last Kill has its own obstacles to overcome.
The Punisher: One Last Kill's official runtime of just 44 minutes (excluding credits) has left many fans disappointed. Ever since the Disney+ Special Presentation was announced, One Last Kill has been consistently touted as one-hour-long, meaning that the true runtime shaves roughly 15 minutes off expectations. But the frustration stems beyond that into a larger trend and an ongoing issue that it highlights in the MCU's Netflix reboot.
At just 44 minutes, One Last Kill has beaten Season 1, Episode 10 to become The Punisher's shortest MCU TV episode, with that chapter in Castle's Netflix tale running just over 45 minutes without its credits. The two-season Netflix show averaged a 52-minute episode runtime, including the credits, and roughly 49 minutes excluding them, making One Last Kill far shorter than its predecessors:
- The Punisher: 46:18 - 57:59 (52 min average)
- Season 1: 48:19 - 57:59 (54 min average)
- Season 2: 46:18 - 56:58 (49 min average)
Fans noted the same runtime criticism during the previous two chapters in Marvel Studios' Netflix series reboot (Daredevil: Born Again Seasons 1 & 2). That said, there are concerns that the issue will be more pronounced in The Punisher: One Last Kill, given that it only has one special to work with, not a full season.
Reflecting on Born Again's runtimes, the average episode was only three minutes shorter than Daredevil, however, it came with roughly two extra minutes of credits, making for a more noticable difference. The problem only becomes greater when realizing that the Netflix seasons were 13-episodes-long, while Born Again dropped to nine for Season 1 and even further to eight for Season 2 and beyond:
- Daredevil: 45:22 - 1:00:45 (54 min average)
- Season 1: 49:30 - 1:00:45 (56 min average)
- Season 2: 47:56 - 1:00:27 (55 min average)
- Season 3: 45:22 - 54:24 (51 min average)
- Daredevil: Born Again: 41:36 - 01:00:57 (51 min average)
- Season 1: 41:36 - 01:00:57 (50 min average)
- Season 2: 47:01 - 53:51 (52 min average)
Looking at the Netflix shows more broadly, the shortest episode was Jessica Jones Season 3, Episode 8, "A.K.A. Camera Friendly," which ran for around 42 minutes, excluding credits. That being said, that was something of an outlier in Jessica Jones' final season, as it had an average runtime of around 49 minutes.
Daredevil: Born Again's first season beat that frustrating record with its divisive bank robbery episode, in which the credits roll after 37 minutes. Although if one counts Echo as part of the Defenders Saga, as Disney+ does, the briefest entry yet is its finale, "Maya," which runs for under 32 minutes when excluding the credits.
That is comfortably under half the length of the Defenders Saga's longest episode: Luke Cage Season 2, Episode 13, "They Reminisce Over You." The bulletproof hero's series finale dropped in 2018 as 1 hour, 7 minutes without the credits, leaving Luke Cage's tale on a cliffhanger that is only being resolved now.
Marvel Studios' Netflix Reboot Runtimes Are a Problem That Will Never Be Fixed
It's easy to see why some fans would be critical of Marvel Studios' Netflix reboot adopting shorter runtimes, even if it is only by around five minutes. In the case of Daredevil: Born Again, Disney+ has also shaved off five episodes per season going forward compared to the Netflix, thereby axing around five hours of content.
Of course, The Punisher: One Last Kill is a unique case, as it is only trying to tell a short, simplistic story centered on Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle, not a larger, sprawling narrative and city-wide battle against corruption like Born Again.
Many have argued that the reduction in content output has contributed to a decline in quality when it comes to Disney+'s Born Again versus Netflix's Daredevil. In many ways, that criticism is justified, as those hours lost has reduced the ability to let scenes breathe, develop side characters, and gradually build tension.
That problem could become more prominent next season as Born Again adds more Defenders superheroes into the equation, juggled with continuing the stories of its existing characters. It may be best that Marvel Studios doesn't wait too long to spin more of the Defenders off into their own solo projects so that Born Again can go back to truly being Daredevil's show full time.
Unfortunately, eight-episode seasons has become the norm for most modern streaming TV, not just the MCU, while runtimes of around 45 minutes are mostly standard for Disney+. As such, these issues are likely to remain unresolved, although Marvel Studios will undoubtebly only get better at utilizing its runtimes.
