Marvel fans still haven’t quite come to terms with the fact that Daredevil has been cancelled after just three seasons. The show was beloved by everyone and had just served up perhaps its greatest run yet, so there’s been a lot of theorizing about why the decision was made to curtail the exploits of the Man Without Fear.
One of the more common explanations going around is that Marvel made the call to finish the series as they’re focusing on creating fresh content for Disney’s upcoming streaming service, Disney Plus. However, one star of the show is now disputing this, as she says her contacts at Marvel seem just as shocked by the news as the fans and the cast and crew are.
Amy Rutberg – who plays Foggy Nelson’s girlfriend Marci Stahl – told Inverse the following:
“My contacts at Marvel were very surprised. Any of the rumors that it was a Marvel decision are wrong, I think it was purely a Netflix decision. That comes from personal conversations with people high up at Marvel. They were surprised.”
This squares up with what we’ve heard before, as Daredevil producer Sam Ernst revealed on Twitter that he attended a lunch with a group of Marvel execs shortly after the cancellation and everyone there was in mourning for the show. But if it really was Netflix that made the call to bring the curtain down on things in Hell’s Kitchen, why did they do it?
Well, industry insiders have pointed out that Netflix as a company is in a very different place from when they first made their deal with Marvel earlier in the decade. Back then, they were desperate for original content. Now, they’re much more successful and likely no longer wish to collaborate with a rival company, especially since Disney Plus will very directly threaten their territory.
Whatever the reason for the end of Daredevil though, the sad truth is that Marvel can’t use the character or the rest of the Defenders for at least two years, due to contractual reasons. Which means fans of the ol’ Hornhead might find themselves having to binge watch the show over and over again for quite a while.