When Iron First was cancelled by Netflix last month, it came as little surprise considering it was comfortably the weakest of the streaming giant’s Marvel shows. The slightly-more-surprising cancellation of Luke Cage soon followed, and when it was also revealed there was unlikely to be another Defenders season, fans understood. It was only a one-off team up after all.
But now, in a very surprising move, Netflix has cancelled Daredevil, putting their whole Marvel TV slate up in the air. Considering what a popular and acclaimed show Daredevil was, it’s becoming clear these moves may not be solely about ratings or views.
The show launched in 2015 and was intended to be Marvel’s outlet to explore their somewhat grittier characters who may not have been in the plans for feature film appearances. To prove they were serious, Drew Goddard (The Cabin In The Woods) was brought in to helm the first season, but departed before it even began to instead direct Sony‘s Sinister Six (which never actually got made).
Still, Daredevil ran smoothly when it was eventually taken over by Steven S. DeKnight. The third season was recently released in October to acclaim from both fans and critics, and new showrunner Erik Oleson even tweeted about pitching season 4 to Netflix. A season that will not exist.
As a part of Netflix’s statement regarding the cancellation, one particular line stood out: “While the series on Netflix has ended, the three existing seasons will remain on the service for years to come, while the ‘Daredevil’ character will live on in future projects for Marvel”.
With Disney set to launch their rival streaming platform Disney+ in 2019, which we know will play host to Marvel shows such as a limited series with Tom Hiddleston returning as Loki, it’s possible the Daredevil cancellation is more to do with this than anything else.
Those shows will be ran by Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, not Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb who oversaw the Netflix shows, and it signals a shift that Disney is looking to truly expand their MCU to the small screen by putting Feige in charge. It seems likely that Marvel plans to resurrect the Daredevil character for their own use, though whether that would involve Charlie Cox or the established canon is unclear.
Jessica Jones and The Punisher are the only shows that are currently not cancelled, but it seems like only a matter of time. Both are ongoing productions, with season 3 of Jessica Jones filming this summer for example, so they are too far along to axe entirely, but expect that axe to come down hard in 2019.
While this news is surprising, it does follow a recent Netflix trend of the company cancelling shows they do not own outright, such as American Vandal, another hugely popular series. With Disney+ looming, it’s hard to imagine that it didn’t have something to do with Netflix cancelling one of their most watched, acclaimed shows.
With the streaming wars set to truly ignite next year, we’ll wait and see what happens with the Daredevil character, and whether he and his Marvel cohorts will be resurrected on another platform.
#Peace.Love.Daredevil
