When Daredevil first premiered on Netflix in Spring of 2015, it kicked off what many thought would be a long and fruitful partnership between Disney/Marvel and the streaming service. It was the first of four planned live-action superhero shows which would also include Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, and all four would eventually come together in the team-up series The Defenders. In addition, a Punisher series would spin-off out of Daredevil. The shows all performed well for Netflix and all but Iron Fist received high marks from critics and fans. When the cancellation of that latter series was announced in October 2018 after its second season had been released, the news did not come as a huge surprise because it was the least popular of the four main shows. But then the cancellation of Luke Cage followed only a week later which set off waves, and the axing of Daredevil made it apparent that Netflix was in the midst of a divorce with the Mouse House. The cancellations of both Jessica Jones and The Punisher would both be announced in early 2019.
So why did Daredevil and the other Netflix MCU shows come to an end less than four years after such a promising partnership had been launched on the streaming service?
In a large part, the answer comes down to corporate politics and strategy, and any chance that the shows will be revived will depend on those factors as well. At the time that Daredevil premiered, Netflix was the leading streaming service (and it still is today), and Disney’s focus at that time was primarily on the big screen and the linear television channels. But as streaming continued to prove itself to be big business and it became apparent that the audience preferred the on-demand viewing model, executives at the House of Mouse decided they needed one of those streaming channels. When they announced that they would be moving forward with the new service, that was followed by the news that Disney would end its existing distribution agreement, though Daredevil and the other Defenders shows were not necessarily included in that because separate deals were made for those shows. But the fact that Disney was pulling the majority of its content and setting itself up to be a major rival certainly helped influence Netflix’s decision to pull the plug on the shows.
The cancellations also brought to light the fact that Netflix is only in it for the short game with most of its originals. The streaming services make money from their originals by drawing in new subscriptions, and diminishing returns set in on those new subscribers because the audience for a television show tends to trend downward the longer it is on the air (not always, but that is the typical trend). In addition, Netflix works on a cost-plus model where they pay the studio producing the show more for each subsequent season. So the streamer essentially disincentives itself from keeping the show going for an extended run. It was not as apparent at the time of the Daredevil cancellation, but since then we have seen that most Netflix shows run for three to four seasons max (more on that at this link). They have adopted a churn-and-burn model where they are constantly pushing out new original shows, but rarely allowing those to go longer than three to four years. That corporate strategy along with the fact that Disney was pulling its content certainly influenced the cancellation of the MCU shows on Netflix.
The cancellation announcement in November 2018 led immediately to the SaveDaredevil campaign which is one of the more active and better-organized campaigns that I have seen over the past decade or so, and it has a global reach. It brought immediate attention to the cancellation by getting #SaveDaredevil and similar hashtags trending on social media as well as racking up massive signatures for the online petition (now at over 400K). The hope was that either Disney+ or Hulu (also owned by Disney) would pick up Daredevil and perhaps more of the cancelled shows. But Netflix held the rights to the characters for two years after their final season, so nothing could move forward during that timeframe. Those rights have since lapsed, reviving hopes that Daredevil and more would return. And Charlie Cox just made an appearance as Matt Murdock in Spiderman: No Way Home and Vincent D’Onofrio reprised his role as Kingpin in the Hawkeye series, so the characters are officially back in the MCU now.
With those developments, the SaveDaredevil campaign–which has been active since the initial cancellation–is picking up the momentum and continuing its efforts to convince Disney to bring it back for a fourth season. It may not be a good fit on the more family-friendly Disney+ service, but Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the others would make good additions to Hulu’s lineup of originals. Marvel/Disney has already set its slate of TV shows and movies for the coming year, but the veteran shows that were the trailblazers could be added to that at some point. How they return will depend on how they fit in the overal MCU framework, but the fans certainly want them back, and there is plenty of opportunity with the characters. Disney would be advised to pay attention and get these into the development queue. Meanwhile, fans should keep the campaign going to let the Mouse House know that there is still a strong desire for more seasons of Daredevil and the other Netflix MCU show.
Learn how you can support the SaveDaredevil campaign at this link .
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