Here’s why Daredevil series 3 won’t reference the events of Avengers: Infinity War
There’s a very good reason the Marvel Netflix series won’t tie into Thanos’ grand plan – but that doesn’t mean it can't in the future…
When Marvel’s streaming Netflix series began, their role was clear: provide a street-level, grittier take on superheroics using the characters who were going spare, while still broadly tying into the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, as the collection of series – which includes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Punisher and the recently-cancelled Iron Fist – have continued they’ve referenced the movies less and less, with only the alien attack of the first Avengers movie (aka “The Incident”) making much of an impact on our heroes’ lives.
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Accordingly, any fans hoping to see the consequences of Avengers: Infinity War (where Josh Brolin’s Thanos killed half the population of the universe with the snap of his fingers) in the third series of Daredevil will be disappointed – though according to new showrunner Erik Oleson, there’s a very good reason for the delay.
“My answer is that the timeline of this show takes place before the snap,” Oleson told RadioTimes.com when asked why Infinity War was ignored in the new series’ plot.
“That’s my convenient answer!”
However, Oleson said there was also a practical reason for the discrepancy. Both Marvel’s movies and its TV series have long production times and don’t really collaborate, so he actually had little clue what was coming until he saw the film when Daredevil season three was well underway.
“Honestly, I had no idea what they were doing on the movie side until I went to the premiere, and I said 'Oh s**t!'” he laughed.
And while he didn’t deny that Thanos’ grand plan COULD impact the life of crime-fighting lawyer Matt Murdock, Oleson wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how that might work in future series.
“I will have to ask my friends at Marvel about that,” Oleson said.
“But I'm not allowed to talk about future plans, or the Marvel snipers will come out and this'll be my last interview.”
Of course, some people might even come to Daredevil without having seen Infinity War - and generally speaking, Oleson says he tried to find a balance in the new series between catering to die-hard fans and more casual viewers.
“I made the show both for comic fans and for somebody who's never read a comic book in their life,” he told us.
“Season three is an original story, which takes parts of comic-book storylines like Born Again, Guardian Devil, and some of my other favourite runs. But the television show is its own art form. I had to honour what had come before in the previous seasons of the show.
“So I was aiming to do a season three that was tonally somewhere between season one of this show and the Sopranos.
“And what I mean by that is like really fleshed-out characters and deep, layered emotional storytelling.”
He added: “The guiding principle for me as a fan of the comics was I wanted to give my fellow geeks everything they want, but not in the way that they expect it.
"That said, anybody who is not a fan of the comics can just watch the show and watch a really great crime thriller, with conspiracy thriller elements."
So who knows? Maybe the evil of Thanos is still coming to Netflix to take us all by surprise...
Daredevil season 3 is streaming on Netflix now
