How many episodes of Daredevil are there?

By Alex Wiggan

In 2015, Daredevil hit television screens. The Marvel super hero show, which starred Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, followed the story of a blind lawyer named Matt Murdock, who practices law by day, and spends his nights as a costumed vigilante.

In the series, Murdock uses heightened senses to fight crime, dishing out punishment to those who cross the line. Chief amongst his foes is Wilson Fisk, better known as the Kingpin of crime, who becomes a thorn in Daredevil’s side as the show goes on.

Brutal, engrossing and very well written, Daredevil proved to be an instant hit with streamers when it made its debut on Netflix. The series quickly became one of the streaming service’s most popular shows, picking up praise from critics and subscribers alike.

Although Netflix no longer airs new episodes of the show, to this day, Daredevil remains a firm-favourite with Marvel fans, and is often cited as being a piece of ‘must-watch’ Marvel television. But if you’re new to the world of Daredevil, how many episodes of the show do you need to catch up on?

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Daredevil ran for a total of three seasons, beginning in 2015 and ending in 2018. Across the course of its three-year run, a total of 39 episodes of Daredevil were produced.

The first episode of Daredevil was Into the Ring, while the final episode was A New Napkin. During its initial run, the show featured a number of classic Marvel characters, including Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson, Ben Urich, Elektra Natchios, and Frank Castle/The Punisher.

If you missed Daredevil when it initially hit screens, then you missed out on a real treat. But don’t worry, you can still catch up on the series via Netflix or through DVD, Blu-ray, or digital platforms.

And you are urged to check it out – Daredevil is a great show, worth revisiting time-and-time again. The series is one of Marvel’s best, with a collection of great characters to match.

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A list of Daredevil episodes in order

Below is a list of all 39 episodes of Daredevil. Should you want to catch up on the show, then simply follow this list:

Season One

01) Into the Ring
02) Cut Man
03) Rabbit in a Snowstorm
04) In the Blood
05) World on Fire
06) Condemned
07) Stick
08) Shadows in the Glass
09) Speak of the Devil
10) Nelson v. Murdock
11) The Path of the Righteous
12) The Ones We Leave Behind
13) Daredevil

Season Two

14) Bang
15) Dogs to a Gunfight
16) New York’s Finest
17) Penny and Dime
18) Kinbaku
19) Regrets Only
20) Semper Fidelis
21) Guilty as Sin
22) Seven Minutes in Heaven
23) The Man in the Box
24) 380
25) The Dark End at the End of the Tunnel
26) A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen

Season Three

27) Resurrection
28) Please
29) No Good Deed
30) Blindsided
31) The Perfect Game
32) The Devil You Know
33) Aftermath
34) Upstairs/Downstairs
35) Revelations
36) Karen
37) Reunion
38) One Last Shot
39) A New Napkin

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Daredevil’s cancellation

Now I know what you’re thinking: If the show was so successful, why was Daredevil cancelled?

Well, Daredevil’s cancellation came as somewhat of a surprise to the cast, the crew, and to audiences. Before the plug was pulled on the series, it seemed likely it would run and run, at least for another couple of years anyway, but that was not to be.

After three seasons, it was Netflix who decided to bring the series to an end. And while there was no official reason given by Netflix for Daredevil’s cancellation, it was widely understood that the streaming service had felt a desire to move on from the property.

Following Daredevil’s debut in 2015, Netflix commissioned a number of Marvel television shows, including Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher. While the majority of these shows had proved popular at the time of their release, the streaming service didn’t want to focus its future on solely on creating never-ending content for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Yes, I know that you and I would love to watch endless MCU programming, but that’s not quite how these things work. TV production is a business, and Netflix needs to decide if continuing a show like Daredevil makes business sense – and on this occasion, it didn’t.

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As a content creator, Netflix tends to follow a rule of keeping its shows to a limited number of seasons (usually around three), before moving onto something else. With Daredevil hitting three seasons, and its sister shows reaching similar numbers, it was essentially the right time for the service to bring things to a close.

To add to this, Disney – the owners of Marvel – were beginning to go through somewhat of a transitional period around the time of Daredevil’s cancellation. In 2018, the company entered the process of buying 20^th Century Fox, which would allow it to expand its portfolio of content, and more importantly allow Disney to push ahead with its own streaming service, which launched in 2020 as Disney+.

With Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe becoming a key component of Disney+ and all future content – including both movies and television shows – set to appear on Disney’s own streaming service, it would have been counterproductive for Netflix to keep streaming/funding new Marvel content. If the service kept co-producing and streaming new episodes of Daredevil, it would be effectively promoting the MCU and by association it would be promoting a rival streaming service, which did not make good business sense.

While Netflix and Disney had enjoyed a successful partnership when Daredevil began, the TV landscape had changed considerably in the three years that followed the show’s launch. In short: In 2015 both companies needed each other, but by 2018 the partnership was no longer essential for Netflix, nor was it all that important for Disney.

By cancelling and then moving on from Daredevil (as well as its sister shows), Netflix was able to re-direct funding into new programming, which in turn helped to strengthen its own portfolio. Meanwhile, Disney consolidated and reconfigured its Marvel output into one place, bringing the majority of its television and movie content straight to Disney+.

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Why isn’t Daredevil on Disney+?

If you’re wondering why the three seasons of Daredevil didn’t automatically move to Disney+ in 2020, it is because the rights to the Daredevil TV show lie with Netflix. The shows were made specifically for Netflix, so unless Netflix and Disney come to a licensing agreement about where the episodes can air, seasons one to three of Daredevil remain on their original streaming platform.

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The Defenders

As noted above, in addition to the three seasons of Daredevil, Netflix commissioned a number of other Marvel television shows, including a super hero team-up mini-series known as The Defenders. The show combined characters from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist for an eight-episode run, which aired in 2017.

The episodes of The Defenders were as follows:

1) The H Word
2) Mean Right Hook
3) Worst Behavior
4) Royal Dragon
5) Take Shelter
6) Ashes, Ashes
7) Fish in the Jailhouse
8) The Defenders

If you plan on adding The Defenders to a future Daredevil binge-watch, then you should know this mini-series aired after Daredevil’s second season, but before season three. So, be sure to watch Daredevil and The Defenders in the following order:

Daredevil – Season One
Daredevil – Season Two
The Defenders – Mini-series
Daredevil – Season Three

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If you’re a fan of Daredevil, and you want to watch or re-watch the show, then you may wish to know that all the episodes are available season by season on Blu-ray.

The Daredevil: Complete Season One Blu-ray includes all thirteen episodes of the show’s first season, beginning Matt Murdock’s journey.

The Daredevil: Complete Season One Blu-ray is available from all good entertainment stockists, including Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Thank you for stopping by It’s A Stampede! to read this post about Daredevil – I hope it has proved useful, and has encouraged you to check out the show. For more posts, be sure to take a look at the recommended reads below.

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