DAREDEVIL NEWS

02/18 - PUNISHER and JESSICA JONES Canceled

In a move that was expected, but maybe not this soon, Netflix has canceled both PUNISHER and JESSICA JONES today, but the third season of JJ will be released this year.

From Netflix via Deadline:

“Marvel’s The Punisher will not return for a third season on Netflix,” Netflix confirmed today to Deadline. “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,” the streamer added.

“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,” Netflix also made official this President’s Day. “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.”

Jeph Loeb released a statement to Marvel Netflix fans as well:

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.

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,” the company added.

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…!

So, what does this all mean? The existing versions of these shows will remain on Netflix, and it has been rumored that the rights to the characters will remain with Netflix for two years after cancellation. With Disney+ coming, and Disney's share in Hulu increasing to 60%, there's a good chance some version of these shows will continue, but will it be a reboot or will some of the actors return?

The Marvel Netflix shows were announced in November 2013, with the original agreement being 13 episode seasons of DAREDEVIL, JESSICA JONES, LUKE CAGE and IRON FIST, with a mini series for DEFENDERS. But the shows were successful, adding PUNISHER, three seasons of DD, three seasons of JESSICA JONES, two seasons of LUKE CAGE, and for IRON FIST, and two for PUNISHER.