Coming to us straight from the No S#*@ Sherlock department, Netflix has now officially canceled both The Punisher and Jessica Jones, thus officially killing the last living appendages of the street-level MCU. The good news is that there’s a growing chance this won’t be the real end. New deals have recently been cut at Hulu to launch four different animated series as well as the continuation of their live-action Marvel’s Runaways series. Just last week, the head of Hulu’s programming department said that he was looking to do more with Marvel as soon as they are ready. This has many fans hoping that at least some of the Netflix series could find life on the competing network. After all, with the FOX deal done, Marvel now owns 60% of Hulu. It would make a lot more sense to post the shows on a network where they get a bigger chunk of the profit. It also gives them a chance to re-tool the universe (drop the Iron Fist and Luke Cage solo series and combine them into a Heroes for Hire show).
To mark the occasion of the cancelation, Marvel TV Boss Jeph Loeb has taken to the internet to share a few words on the subject:
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