Marvel’s Reign On Netflix Officially Ends

Netflix has brought the Marvel four…. or five, back together. But not for a good thing. After months of speculation, the streaming service has finally cancelled the final two series, Jessica Jones and The Punisher. This comes just weeks after the season 2 premiere of The Punisher and the production wrap of the third season of Jessica Jones.

These last two cancellations formally mark the end of an era for the Netflix and Marvel relationship that began in 2013, when they announced the four series and The Defenders crossover. To most fans, this is not a huge surprise since Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Daredevil were cancelled just days apart in October 2018. Netflix will still show the final season of Jessica Jones; however, no release date has been set.

Netflix had to say this about the two shows and Marvel,

Marvel’s The Punisher will not return for a third season on Netflix. Showrunner Steve Lightfoot, the terrific Crew, and exceptional cast including star Jon Bernthal, delivered and acclaimed and compelling series for fans, and we are proud to showcase their work on Netflix for years to come.

In addition, in reviewing our Marvel Programming, we have decided that the upcoming third season will also be the final season for Marvel’s Jessica Jones. We are grateful to showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, star Krysten Ritter and the entire cast and crew, for three incredible seasons of this groundbreaking series, which was recognized by the Peabody Awards among many others.

We are grateful to Marvel for five years of our fruitful partnership and thank the passionate fans who have followed these series from the beginning.

Marvel added this

It had never been done before. Four separate television series, each with different super-talented showrunners, writers, directors, cast and crew, coming out months apart and then…they would meet in a single even series all set in the heart of New York City. We called them The Defenders.

And together we were thrilled by stories of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and even The Punisher joined in! They said it couldn’t be done. But Marvel assembled amazing teams to write, produce, direct, edit, and score 13 seasons and 161 one-hour episodes. Take a moment and go online and look at the dazzling list of actors, writers, directors, and musicians who graced us with the very best of their craft.

We loved each and every minute of it.

And we did it all for you – the fans – who cheered for us around the world and made all the hard work worth it.

On behalf of everyone at Marvel Television, we couldn’t be prouder or more grateful to our audience. Our network partner may had decided they no longer want to continue telling the takes of these great characters…but you know Marvel better than that.

As Matthew Murdock’s dad once said, “The measure of a man is not how he gets knocked to the mat, its how he gets back up.”

To be continues…!

Since Disney, who owns Marvel, announced last year their Disney+ streaming service, the question on everyone’s mind is: will these characters show up there with new seasons? Well, not until 2020 or later per a clause in the original agreement between the companies which keeps Luke Cage, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist from appearing in any non-Netflix series or films for at least two years after cancellation. Even with Disney’s shift to start their own streaming service and the slow removal of other Marvel content from Netflix, Marvel Television was committed to keeping the series on the streaming service as long as Netflix was still interested. However, the relationship became strained during talks about a third season of Luke Cage. First, they couldn’t decide on a script and second, Netflix wanted to cut the season from 13 to 10 episodes.

Since then Disney has announced doing another four series with Marvel characters plus a crossover on Hulu featuring Howard the Duck, M.O.D.O.K., Hit-Monkey, and Tigra and Dazzler, but this time animated instead of live-action. However, Disney+ won’t be short on Marvel characters with the MCU’s Loki, Vision and Scarlet Witch, and Winter Soldier/Falcon each getting their own series.

As for Netflix, they have recently started laying down the foundation to create a movie and TV universe around The Chronicles of Narnia. Netflix has also signed an eight-figure deal for the rights to Roald Dahl’s properties, looking to create several animated TV series based on his works, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Plus, they have signed on comic creator Mark Millar for multiple TV shows, movies, and comics.