It’s been a bittersweet year for diehard Marvel Studios fans. Within the past seven months, the House of Ideas gave the world Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, each a billion-dollar grossing movie that served to expand the corners of the MCU. However, fans of the more street-level heroes took a hit when the studio pulled the plug on their final Netflix series Jessica Jones and The Punisher, bringing what remained of The Defenders to an early end.
We heard earlier this week though that the MCU wasn’t yet finished with the team, with a Daredevil reboot allegedly already in the works. Now, it sounds like revamped versions of Luke Cage and Iron Fist are on the way, too.
Cosmic Book News has heard from their source that the studio plans to reboot both characters in a Heroes For Hire project. While it’s currently unknown if the duo will receive a movie or a Disney Plus series, it’s very unlikely that Finn Jones and Mike Coulter will reprise their roles. While Netflix retains the rights to the characters for the next couple of years, we know Marvel’s Phase 5 will kick-off right around the time the studio gains those rights back.
Sources also confirmed to Cosmic Book News the long rumored feud between Head of Marvel TV Jeph Loeb and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, leading the latter to officially oversee all future streaming series for Disney Plus. The Netflix Iron Fist show was particularly criticized upon its release, digging a deeper trench between the studio’s television and film departments, so with Feige now in control, Disney hopes to bring the same quality to the smaller screen as it’s consistently brought to cinemas.
The news of the Heroes for Hire reboot comes a little over a week since Marvel revealed that Mahershala Ali will spearhead a new Blade film. Ali, who had previously portrayed Cottonmouth on Luke Cage before winning two Academy Awards, personally pitched the idea to Feige, essentially driving a stake into any shared continuity between Netflix and the films. Could the rumored R-rating of the Blade reboot pave a way for much more adult fare by the time Heroes for Hire arrives? We’ll just have to wait and find out.
