As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand into television with a variety of Disney+ TV series and miniseries, a glaring absence has been the characters who had previously starred in Netflix streaming programs, like Punisher and Daredevil. This has led some fans to theorize that Marvel Studios was not initially interested in some of the darker characters of the Marvel Universe and that is why the characters were used on Netflix rather than being adapted in the MCU. As it turns out, though, Marvel Studios never even had the chance to use Daredevil, Punisher, Ghost Rider and more characters.
Famously, Marvel Entertainment sold off the movie rights to a number of its characters over the years, and as time went by and movies were never made featuring these other characters, Marvel regained these rights. The Avengers characters (only Captain America was ever turned into any movie of any kind among them) were the basis for the early days of Marvel Studios, but as time passed, Marvel regained the movie rights to some characters who had previously had films like Daredevil, Punisher and Ghost Rider (the latter two characters had multiple films). You would normally figure that Marvel Studios was given the option to decide if it wanted to do something with those characters when the movie rights reverted to Marvel, but that was not the case.
In a new book, The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it reveals that Marvel Entertainment purposely avoided giving Marvel Studios access to these characters, explaining, "While many observers assumed that this entire stable of characters would go directly into Marvel Studios' movie development process, it was decided by Marvel Entertainment's higher-ups that because the movie side was already deeply committed to their successful Avengers characters, and the impending Guardians of the Galaxy characters, that the returnees would instead help build a planned TV empire under the direct control of Marvel Entertainment (entirely separate from Marvel Studios)."
As it turned out, Marvel Studios actively wanted the characters at the time, but was turned down, as the book notes, "The film side had no control over those characters, despite their interest in developing them. Instead, they all went to Marvel Entertainment. Ghost Rider appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, and the others were placed in different streaming series."
In the time since then, though, Marvel Television has gone under and Marvel Studios now has control over both film and television, so there are no longer any fights over the rights to certain characters. Rather, Marvel Studios is simply taking its time in determining how best to work characters like Daredevil, Punisher and Ghost Rider into the MCU.
Source: The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, via ComicBook.com