The moment Iron Fist and Luke Cage were canceled after their second seasons, we knew that this will be the case for the rest of the Marvel Netflix shows as well. After seeing the third season of Daredevil, there was still some hope that this show will not face the same feat that Iron Fist and Luke Cage did, but Netflix even terminated that excellence. So, the writing was on the Wall for The Punisher and Jessica Jones as well.
Jessica Jones didn’t get canceled right then because a third season was already in the making, and now Netflix has given their final statement of cancellations confirming that The Punisher is done after 2 seasons and Jessica Jones will be done after Season 3. Here’s the statement:
“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 an 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.”
We as fans didn’t really know the reason for these cancellations and no one from Marvel was allowed to talk about them legally. We only figured that this was a sort of statement from Netflix due to the fact that Disney is entering the competition by coming up with Disney+. But now according to a new report coming from The Hollywood Reporter, we do have an official answer to this. THR included a breakdown for these cancellations stating:
“Put simply: Netflix did not have an ownership stake in any of its Marvel TV series. Each of the six Marvel shows was owned by Disney. Netflix paid ABC Studios a (steep) licensing fee for each season of its respective series.”
Well, it is more about the money than anything as the viewership did drop from what it was before, even though the numbers weren’t bad. So, these shows were a bit costly for the streaming giant. Netflix will fare well anyway since they are obviously launching a lot of original content this year. So they really don’t need this extra expense.
These characters do have a future and Marvel TV President Jeph Loeb did issue a promising letter for that. He said:
“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 event 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.
So, Thank You!
On behalf of everyone at Marvel Television, we couldn’t be more proud or more grateful to our audience.
Our Network partner may have decided they no longer want to continue telling the tales 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, it’s how he gets back up.”
To be continued…!”
– Jeph Loeb and all of us at Marvel Television
