Last week, Marvel fans’ hearts were broken when Netflix announced that it was cancelling Daredevil after just three seasons. Following Iron Fist and Luke Cage previously meeting the same fate, it seems that Jessica Jones and The Punisher are on borrowed time and won’t last past their third and second seasons, respectively. The way things are going, it looks like Marvel and Netflix are cutting all ties.
io9 spoke to Daredevil writer Tamara Becher-Wilkinson recently and she gave her own opinion on the matter which lines up well with what fans are theorizing is going on behind the scenes. According to her, the Marvel universe on Netflix is at its end.
“If I was a bettering woman, you know, my guess is that it’s the end of the Marvel universe on Netflix.”
In the same interview, Becher-Wilkinson admitted that she thought the series was too big to fail, as it has a loyal fanbase behind it, the backing of Marvel and the third season, in particular, earned rave reviews. She also recalled the moment that the writers’ room discovered the cancellation news and how much of a shock it was.
“Erik Oleson [the series showrunner] got a call asking him to go down to see the Marvel executives, and I jokingly went ‘Ooooooooh,’ like a third grader does when someone gets called to a principal’s office,” Becher-Wilkinson reflected. “Then, he waited for everybody to gather back in the writers’ room and he said, ‘Netflix has decided not to move forward with season four.’ And that’s all I remember, you know. I kind of missed the details because I was, like, so surprised.”
So, if this is what’s going on, what’s happened to sour Marvel and Netflix’s partnership? Well, the big thing is that Disney’s now more interested in creating new Marvel shows for their own upcoming streaming service Disney+. Besides this, insiders have claimed that Netflix was having problems with the creative direction of the shows – believing they were too long, for one – which furthered the conflict.
Whatever the reason, the end result’s the same: we won’t be seeing anymore Daredevil on our screens. Even though season 4 was apparently going to be awesome.
