Here is an expanded version of my story from today’s final edition:
New York City is about to become home of the superhero.
Gov. Cuomo and Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger will announce Wednesday morning that four different live-action series featuring Marvel comic superheroes will film in New York in the coming years and be streamed on Netflix.
“It’s a pretty big deal,” said one source with knowledge of the deal.
The first 13-episode series will focus on “Daredevil” followed over multiple years by 13-episode installments of “Jessica Jones,” “Iron Fist,” and “Luke Cage.”
The series, first announced late last year, will take “Netflix members deep into the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell’s Kitchen, New York” and culminate in a Marvel “The Defenders” miniseries.
At the time, no filming location had been announced. Sources say Disney will benefit from New York’s lucrative film and television production tax credit.
Several localities duked it out to attract the project, with Toronto coming in a close second, one source said.
Disney and Netflix late last year announced the ambitious project that will be produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Television Studios. At the time, it was described as Marvel’s “most ambitious foray yet into live-action TV storytelling.”
New York’s $420 million annual film production tax credit program, which covers 30% of qualified costs, has been criticized by some as corporate welfare for wealthy Hollywood studios.
But Cuomo has touted the program for bringing thousands of film and television jobs. Last year, the state reworked the program in a way that helped lure NBC’s venerable “The Tonight Show” back to New York. It also helped attract NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”
Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for a hefty $4 billion. Marvel’s cast of superheroes include Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, and the X-men.
