The entire slate of Marvel Netflix shows have just hit Disney Plus. Dubbed “The Defenders Saga”, you can now stream every season of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and of course, The Defenders on Disney’s streaming service.
First you’ll need to change your Disney Plus settings to enable mature content (These series are all rated TV-MA), but once that’s done you have 13 seasons of (mostly) excellent television to watch, or re watch if you already caught them on Netflix the first time around.
These popular Marvel shows switching over to Disney Plus have been warmly received by most viewers. They now sit on a streaming service that also houses almost the entire MCU (you’ll still need to digitally download Spider-Man: No Way Home), but there is an issue that has caused some disappointment.
Right now, none of the Netflix Marvel shows are available on Disney Plus in 4K. Instead they can only be streamed in HD. Dolby Atmos support has also been omitted, instead each show is available with Dolby 5.1 audio. The very vocal Marvel community has taken to social media sites including Twitter and Reddit to voice their displeasure at this apparent oversight.
The Netflix Marvel shows were expected to be presented in 4K on Disney Plus as the streaming service offers most Marvel movies in IMAX Enhanced mode. Plus, its MCU original series including Loki and Hawkeye are viewable in 4K as well. Disney Plus also doesn’t charge a premium for 4K content (Netflix does), so for some fans this would have been the first chance to watch shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones in a Ultra-HD.
Thankfully, Disney has not stayed silent on the matter. The Disney Plus Help account has claimed the lack of 4K support for the Netflix Marvel right is down to the streamer’s efforts “to make this high-anticipated content available on Disney Plus ASAP.” In order to make the show’s available without delay Disney “opted to launch in HD/SDR to start.”
Hello, Ryan! In an effort to make this highly-anticipated content available to Disney+ subscribers ASAP, we opted to launch in HD/SDR to start, but UHD versions will be available soon. Stay tuned!March 16, 2022
Our sister site TechRadar reached out to Disney directly in hopes of finding out more. While an official statement wasn’t forthcoming, the entertainment corporation did reiterate the stance it shared on social media.
The good news is this lack of 4K support appears to be just a temporary measure. The Disney Plus Help statement notes that “UHD versions will be available soon.” Of course, now Marvel fans are asking, how soon is soon? That’s a question we can’t currently answer, but we’re hoping it’s a matter of weeks not months.
We’d advise waiting for the 4K versions to hit Disney Plus before diving into the Defenders Saga, especially if this will be your first time viewing. After all some of these shows are almost seven years old. If you’ve waited this long to binge them, what's the harm in holding off just a little bit longer?
