Echo executive producer Brad Winderbaum recently answered a question that many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have wanted to know for years: Is Netflix’s Daredevil part of the Sacred Timeline?
During a recent interview with Screen Rant, Winderbaum talked about how the film and television sides of Marvel were previously separated, allowing for some confusion among the fandom as to what exactly was officially MCU canon.
“I can say that up until this point, we’ve been a little bit cagey about what’s Sacred Timeline, what’s not Sacred Timeline. That was born of, frankly, a period at the studio where we were like, ‘We have to stick the landing with the vendors,'” the Marvel Studios EP explained. “It was another part of the company developing the Netflix stuff. We were aware of what they were doing, they were aware of what we were doing, but there was a lot to balance anyway.”
However, when Marvel Studios decided to incorporate Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin into the MCU proper, that’s when Winderbaum learned “how well integrated the stories are” to the wider shared universe. “I think that I personally, Brad Winderbaum, would be confident in saying it is part of the Sacred Timeline,” he concluded.
Marvel Studios didn’t always produce its television shows
When the MCU first expanded into television with the 2013 ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the slogan “It’s All Connected” began to appear in marketing to alert fans that TV shows were now part of the popular shared universe. However, while Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and later Daredevil and Jessica Jones, referenced the events of Marvel’s The Avengers (and other blockbuster films), the movies very rarely returned the favor.
This had to do with Marvel’s film and television divisions initially being run under two separate production companies (Marvel Studios and Marvel Television). Marvel Television was eventually made part of Marvel Studios in late 2019, allowing for the MCU to truly flourish across both mediums.
Kevin Feige Teases the MCU Multiverse
While the verdict is still out on whether Marvel Studios officially recognizes Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Jessica Jones, and the other Marvel Television projects as being part of the Sacred Timeline, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently teased that those properties are part of the MCU Multiverse.
In the forward for the book Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe – An Official Timeline, Feige wrote that Marvel Studios recognizes “that there are stories — movies and series that are canonical to Marvel but were created by different storytellers during different periods of Marvel’s history.” The forward continues by stating that as the MCU dives “deeper into the Multiverse Saga, you never know when timelines may just crash or converge (hint, hint/spoiler alert).”
Netflix’s Daredevil is currently streaming on Disney+, with a spiritual continuation titled Daredevil: Born Again currently in development. Echo releases in its entirety on January 9, 2024, on Hulu and Disney+.
