We didn’t think we’d ever see the day, but it’s here. After years of being viewed as the unwanted step-children of the MCU, the Defenders Saga has officially been anointed as part of Marvel Studios canon — and Disney Plus is here to prove it.
To mark the release of Echo, which brings back both Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin and Charlie Cox as Daredevil, Disney Plus has added all of Marvel’s former Netflix shows to its official MCU timeline order. On the streaming platform’s Marvel brand page, you can now find Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and team-up miniseries The Defenders shuffled in amongst the studio’s movies and shows.
Although these titles have been available on the service for some time now, this is the first time Disney Plus has included them within what Loki likes to call the Sacred Timeline. This comes hot on the heels of Marvel producer Brad Winderbaum confirming these shows are 100% canon. But, fine, they’re canon. What we need to know now is where exactly they fall in the timeline?
Where to watch the Defenders Saga shows in the MCU timeline
As you would expect, all six Defenders Saga shows are grouped quite close together, mostly corresponding to their release dates, and all of them slip into either the second half of Phase Two or the first half of Phase Three. Here’s the relevant section of the Disney Plus MCU timeline that shows you where the Daredevil-verse series slots in.
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
- I Am Groot
- Daredevil
- Jessica Jones
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
- Ant-Man
- Luke Cage
- Iron Fist
- The Defenders
- Captain America: Civil War
- Black Widow
- Black Panther
- The Punisher
- Doctor Strange
The idea that such gritty characters as Kingpin and Frank Castle exist in the same world as talking raccoons and adorable tree babies has always been hard to swallow, so it’s hilarious that Disney’s official Marvel timeline tells us we should go straight from the cutesy animated antics of I Am Groot to Daredevil. Likewise, you might suffer from tonal whiplash after hopping from the blood-soaked action of The Punisher to the magical fantasy of Doctor Strange.
Of course, the problem with this timeline is that it has to group all seasons of these shows as one, even though they intersect in different ways. e.g. The Defenders leads into Daredevil season 3. If you want to go even deeper into how you should watch the Defenders Saga seasons in order, though, luckily we’ve already worked that out for you.
The first phase is complete, folks. Now we just need that Punisher/Groot team-up to happen in Avengers: Secret Wars. Baby steps, baby steps…