The moment fans have been dreading has arrived: Jessica Jones and The Punisher have been cancelled by Netflix.
They were the last two MCU original shows standing, after the streaming service also canned the critically acclaimed Daredevil and Luke Cage, as well as the less-beloved Iron Fist – and by default, also The Defenders, which brought together all four of the New York-based heroes.
There’s another season of Jessica Jones already coming this year, but now we know it will be the last one on Netflix – and it seems like the cast and crew knew a while ago.
“It has been a dream to play Jessica alongside my amazing cast and the best crew in the business for these past 5 years,” said star Krysten Ritter in an Instagram post after the announcement.
“I am so grateful for every second of it. We have THE BEST fans. You guys mean the world to me and I appreciate you beyond words. The final season of #JessicaJones is coming later this year and I am proud of how we complete JJ’s journey. I can’t wait for you all to see it. Stay tuned and more to come.”
While this ragtag bunch of cranky, superpowered misfits are definitely not returning to Netflix, there have been rumblings since the first cancellations about saving the platform’s MCU shows.
The frontrunner is Hulu – the pioneering TV streaming platform that now creates original shows of its own, like The Handmaid’s Tale and upcoming Marvel titles like Kevin Smith’s Howard The Duck.
“Marvel has a ton of titles we’d be interested in,” Hulu’s VP of original programming said. “It kind of just depends on when they’re ready, [and] who, most importantly, is going to be behind [revived series].”
And Marvel honcho Jeph Loeb also wrote a letter to fans on Marvel’s official site on Sunday, where he teased the possible return of The Defenders somewhere other than Netflix.
Marvel assembled amazing teams to write, produce, direct, edit, and score 13 seasons and 161 one-hour episodes. …
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…!
We may never know what the hell the small-screen supers were doing during Infinity War – let alone after the Snap – but we might still get to see their next adventures.