Netflix, Marvel partner for 4-hero epic starring Daredevil, Luke Cage

Four of Marvel’s most storied characters — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage — are getting their very own TV shows.

Well, sort of.

Netflix and Disney announced today that they’ve joined forces to develop a live-action “four series epic,” plus a “miniseries event,” based on a quartet of beloved Marvel characters. Each hero will star in a separate thirteen-episode series. Their storylines will converge in a miniseries evidently called The Defenders, which will “reimagine a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters” — much like Disney’s 2012 big-screen blockbuster The Avengers, which brought together plot threads from five previous films.

The epic tale of the new Defenders begins in 2015 with a serial that spotlights Daredevil, the blind New York City crusader last played onscreen by Ben Affleck in a poorly received 2003 film. Daredevil will be followed by series about Jessica Jones (a superheroine turned private eye), Iron Fist (a martial arts master), and Luke Cage (an indestructible Harlem native whom Old Spice spokesman Isaiah Mustafa campaigned to play a few years ago).

Last year, Netflix signed an exclusive deal with Disney for subscription TV rights to all its live-action and animated films starting in 2016.Another live-action Marvel-based TV series, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., can currently be seen on Disney-owned ABC.