Late last year, Netflix broke Marvel fans’ hearts by cancelling three of their MCU TV shows. Namely, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Daredevil. At the moment, The Punisher and Jessica Jones are still standing, but it’s surely only a matter of time before they join their fellow Defenders on the TV scrapheap.
Still, given that the reason for the cancellations seems to be corporate-related more than to do with their popularity, fans haven’t lost hope that maybe these characters could still return. It seems Marvel Television president Jeph Loeb feels the same way, too.
While speaking at the TCA winter press tour, the producer went so far as to say that he wouldn’t be surprised if any of the cancelled shows “reemerged.” He did warn that the situation surrounding the series was complicated, though, and their continuation would rely on numerous factors. Still, he remains confident that there’s a thirst for more of these heroes.
“I would not be surprised if any of those things reemerged. It depends on showrunner, it depends on availability of cast, all of those things. It’s not like we’re a doctor show where the show got canceled because of bad ratings. These are shows that have very different reasons [for ending], most of which I’m not at liberty to talk about, nor should anyone really care at the end of day.”
For a while there, we weren’t sure exactly who’d cancelled the three shows – did it come from Netflix, or Marvel high-ups? As we’ve heard before, though, Loeb confirmed that it was very much the streaming service’s decision to pull a Thanos and wipe out over half of the Defenders-verse.
“In the Netflix situations, that was a situation where the network made a decision and we had nothing to say about it.”
This is hopeful news for fans, but it has to be said that we’ve heard that a return for Daredevil and his comrades could be complicated by a lot of red tape. It’s believed that Marvel wouldn’t be able to use any of these characters for at least two years after the ending of the last show – which is probably going to be JJ season 3 later this year. Assuming that there’s still interest to do more by then, would the cast be wiling to come back to roles which they probably would’ve moved on from by then?
It’s difficult to say, as the stars have had a variety of reactions so far. Luke Cage‘s Mike Colter and The Punisher‘s Jon Bernthal, for instance, have come to terms with whatever fate has in store, while the cast of Daredevil seem committed to fighting for more of their show. I guess we’ll just have to see how things play out, but it’s good to know that all hope isn’t lost yet.