Long before Disney+ was a thing, there was the main streaming service (that yes is still dominant to this day) in Netflix. Seeing its potential, Disney (through Marvel) made a deal to bring several “street-level” Marvel heroes to the brand in a gritty universe that was in the MCU (technically) and they called it the Defenders-verse. Based on the characters who would form The Defenders. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and later on, The Punisher. And of the six series that came, four were really good, and then…they were all canceled, because of Disney+.
However, the Defenders are back, and now they’re on Disney+ via their 12 combined seasons, and fans are happy to report that though they have been given a “mature label” they are in fact…uncensored.
Why does that matter? Well, due to them being on Netflix, they not only were able to go as violent as they wanted (and they did get really violent at times), but they were able to do swearing and other things that the Disney+ shows shy away from. Not to mention, many of the shows had love-making scenes (another thing the MCU shies away from) and so on and so forth.
And the reason that censorship was feared was because certain other Disney movies from the past HAVE been censored despite it not being the most egregious of things (See: Splash with Tom Hanks).
But thankfully, that is not the case, and now you can enjoy (most of) the series all in one place and even witness some of these character appear in the proper MCU via Spider-Man No Way Home and Hawkeye. With potentially more to come.
And while the Defenders-verse didn’t become as big as the MCU, it did a lot of things right and even propelled certain careers. So check them out and see how they stack up to the MCU shows that have come out recently.
Source: IGN