Last year saw Netflix unexpectedly swing the axe of cancellation on their small corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each of the shows were issued pink slips shortly after airing what would wind up being their final seasons. While many saw this coming, as ratings were supposedly down, critical reception for all the series was up. In fact, Daredevil produced a final set of episodes widely lauded as its best to date, while Luke Cage and Iron Fist provided marked improvements on their previous runs.
However, the impending launch of Disney’s own streaming service, and the wild success of Netflix’s new superhero series, The Umbrella Academy, which proved that Marvel was not a necessity for the streamer, sealed the fate of these shows.
Even though it was clear that the Heroes of Hell’s Kitchen weren’t long for this world, fans were still caught off guard. In fact, there’s still a staunch group of supporters hoping to see the characters resurrected in some form. There are those that are hoping that Disney will revive the erstwhile Defenders with new seasons on Disney Plus, and others, still, are expecting to see Jessica Jones and The Punisher, joining in on the antics of the MCU up on the big screen.
But fans aren’t the only ones pondering the possibilities. During a recent interview while promoting his new CBS series, Evil, actor Mike Colter, who portrayed Luke Cage in the MCU up until last year, spoke about the possibility of returning to the role, saying:
I’d really need to see where he’s going and what the storyline would be. I still have — everyone has — questions about where he was gonna go in Season 3. At this point, we’d be starting, not from scratch but I would need to see where he was going you know? Because as an actor we’re always looking to do different things. So, as long as you’re gainfully employed and doing something that stimulates you, you’re not always looking in your rearview mirror trying to figure out what else you could be doing with a character you’ve already played.
It’s clear that Colter is at least interested in continuing with the character, given that there’s something of substance that he can engage with. Whether this ever comes to pass is up in the air though, as Marvel is contractually prohibited from doing anything with any of the characters they leased to Netflix until 2020, at the earliest. At this point, audiences can only wait and hope that Luke Cage and his fellow Defenders will someday return.
