The Netflix corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe expands beyond Hell's Kitchen this fall with the release of Luke Cage season 1. Mike Colter's solo Marvel superhero TV series follows Luke as he uses his super-strength and bullet-proof skin to battle the criminal empire of Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes (Mahershala Ali), on the streets of Harlem. Not much in the way of specific plot points beyond that have been revealed ahead of time - though Colter has confirmed that Luke Cage's first season picks up a fews months after the events of Jessica Jones season 1.
So far, the timelines of the Marvel/Netflix TV shows have lined up with the chronological order of each new season. Daredevil's street war against Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio) and his own crime empire thus takes place before Jessica's (Krysten Ritter) more personal battle with Kilgrave (David Tennant), with Matt Murdock's (Charlie Cox) subsequent encounters with Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) and The Hand taking place sometime thereafter. However, it turns out the timelines of Daredevil season 2 and Luke Cage season 1 directly overlap with one another.
Cox, when he spoke at Wizard World Chicago, shared the following anecdote about Daredevil season 2 and Rosario Dawson's MCU character, Claire Temple (via CBR):
"One thing that I thought was really cool is that in the second season [of 'Daredevil'], we had a scene together and in the storyline we hadn’t seen each other for a long time and it takes place at the hospital. Roasario had -- Claire Temple has a cut in her eyebrow. So I was like, 'What is that?' Apparently it had nothing to do with our world but it’s part of 'Luke Cage.' The timeline had been thought through and worked out so that whatever’s going on in 'Luke Cage,' which we don’t know, I don’t know, somehow at some point during that show, the next day she’s in the hospital talking to me."
Previously-released trailers and images alike have already confirmed that Claire shows up during the events of Luke Cage season 1. However, it was presumed that part of the reason that Claire was in Harlem in the first place was because she's out job-hunting (or looking for a change in scenery), after having stepped down from her longtime position as a night-shift nurse at Metro-General Hospital in Hell's Kitchen at the end of Daredevil season 2. One possibility is that Claire is still employed at Metro-General when Luke Cage season 1 gets underway but that, by the end of the season, the events of Daredevil season 2 have played out and Claire's in a different place (literally).
Dawson, who was also at the WWC event, spoke about the unusual nature of her time working in the MCU and how Claire is used as a connective tissue between the different Marvel/Netflix series:
"I’ve been signing on every year just on its own… I’ve had a different sort of experience where I really don’t know. And then when I do sign up, I sign up for episodes, but they don’t tell me which shows. So I have no idea -- I’m just sort of working and have this question mark for the entire year, which is when are they gonna call me? And for what and how is it going to show up? What I do, I come in pretty late, so I won’t get those first couple episodes. That happened with the second season [of 'Daredevil']. When I came on, they didn’t send me any of the previous episodes so I suddenly just came in in the middle of all this insanity and they’re like, 'You’ll watch it at the premiere with the rest of us.' My character’s a little standalone in that sense."
Claire should continue serving as a connective link between the street-level heroes of Hell's Kitchen (and Harlem) in the upcoming Marvel/Netflix crossover mini-series event, The Defenders. Naturally, the major team-up event between Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Danny Rand/Iron Fist (Finn Jones) will take place firmly after Daredevil season 1 & 2, as well as Jessica Jones season 1, Luke Cage season 1 and next year's Iron Fist season 1 alike. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see where Claire is at (and what she's up to) during the first season of Iron Fist in particular, before the Defenders unite in 2017.
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Daredevil season 1 & 2 and Jessica Jones season 1 are now available on Netflix. Luke Cage season 1 will arrive on September 30th, 2016. The Defenders and Iron Fist arrive in 2017. Release dates for Jessica Jones season 2, The Punisher and Daredevil season 3 have not yet been announced.
Source: CBR