Spotlighting Team Jessica vs. Team Daredevil
Netflix data narrow down how viewers come to their favorite heroes
Dig the Stranger Things kids? Netflix thinks Luke Cage might be your next big binge.
Superhero lovers started watching the latest adventures of The Defenders this past weekend, and now the streaming service has released new data that show audiences often stray from the launch order of each of its related Marvel series, and reveal patterns of viewing behavior leading directly to its comic-book fare.
Netflix has been prepping for The Defenders since the launch of Daredevil (with Charlie Cox as the blind vigilante) in 2015, followed by Jessica Jones (starring Krysten Ritter as a super-strong private eye) that same year, a second season of Daredevil as well as Luke Cage (featuring Mike Colter as the bulletproof Harlemite) in 2016, and Iron Fist (showcasing Finn Jones as a martial-arts master) this past spring.
Instead of going chronologically, Netflix found that much of its audience wanted to meet its resident butt-kicking woman first: The most popular viewing order starts with Jessica Jones, then moves to Daredevil, Luke Cage and finally, Iron Fist. (One in eight Marvel watchers is new to comic-based content before diving into their first superhero show, according to Netflix.)
“When it comes to an individual story, they’ll watch it in order. But when it comes to these related kind of series, they’re very different kinds of stories,” says Todd Yellin, Netflix’s vice president of product innovation. “They watch them in order of how they’re interested in them and how they learn about them.”
In terms of viewer progression, Daredevil most often leads to Jessica Jones, and vice versa, while those who watch Luke Cage most frequently watch Iron Fist next. It’s not surprising that the latter pair are clustered, since they’re a longtime duo in the comic books, though Yellin figured Cage and Jones “would bunch up more” since Colter’s character first appeared on Ritter’s show.
The viewing data culled from Netflix’s 1,300 “taste communities” around the world, where subscribers are grouped based on what they watch, also discovered certain types of shows that acted as gateways to various Marvel series.
Projects with antiheroes and themes of moral ambiguity such as Bloodline, Breaking Bad, Dexter and House of Cards led viewers to Daredevil, which has had two seasons of Cox playing a lawyer by day and the “devil of Hell’s Kitchen” by night. Meanwhile, Jessica Jones was a next stop for those into comedies and shows with strong women, including Friends, Master of None and Orange Is the New Black.
In addition to attracting interest from fans of ’80s throwback Stranger Things, Luke Cage also appealed to those into explorations of the dark side of society such as Black Mirror, The Walking Dead and the documentary Amanda Knox. And viewers who binged coming-of-age tales, including 13 Reasons Why, Love and The 100 checked out Iron Fist.
“These different lead-ins show that there is unlikely alliances to different people’s tastes about the kinds of stuff they’re going to like,” Yellin says. “The human brain is very complex and taste comes out of that. It’s not like you’re into one thing and that’s all you ever watch.”