Following the cancellation of Marvel’s Daredevil, Iron Fist and Luke Cage Netflix series last year, it wasn’t a huge surprise to hear today that Netflix have confirmed the cancellation of The Punisher and Jessica Jones.

“Marvel’s ‘The Punisher’ will not return for a third season on Netflix. 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. 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.’ 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.”

Marvel’s Jeph Loeb also issued a statement on the end of the series:

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…!

It wasn’t a huge surprise to hear the cancellation of The Punisher, since the second season just became available on Netflix, but the announcement that Jessica Jones is also done, but the third season will still be coming to Netflix later this year.

There has been much speculation about the future of the Defenders, especially with regard to the shows possibly coming to Disney+, but the adult nature of these shows doesn’t fit the family friendly streaming network.

However following the recent announcement of a new Marvel animated series featuring Howard the Duck, coming to Hulu, this makes the future of these shows brighter since Disney is pushing Hulu as it’s more adult focused streaming platform, especially once they gain control of Hulu when they purchase 21st Century Fox.  So my gut feeling is that they are a better fit for Hulu than Disney+.

Another issue for Marvel is that there is an apparent clause in the Netflix contract that the characters can’t be used elsewhere for 2 years after cancellation, so it might be late 2020 until characters like Daredevil reappear on our streaming devices.

The Defenders have been a big hit for Marvel, but the wording in the statements today show Netflix are the ones to pull the plug.  Which isn’t a surprise since Netflix doesn’t want to pay another company like Disney for content it doesn’t own.

I doubt we’ve seen the last of Jessica Jones and The Punisher on our screens, be it on Disney+ or Hulu.

What do you think of the cancellation of Jessica Jones and The Punisher?

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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