Ever since the cancellation of Marvel Netflix shows such as Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Daredevil, there has been rampant speculation among the fans of these shows that there has been some behind the scenes conflict that has a hand in the cancellation of these beloved programs.
It was revealed last week that Daredevil would not be returning for a fourth season over at Netflix, this led to fans around the world reeling and campaigning for Daredevil to be renewed for a fourth season. This news followed the announcements that came only a few weeks prior that stated that Iron Fist and Luke Cage would both not be returning for their respective third seasons. While it has never been confirmed as to what the exact reason was as to why these shows got the axe, many believe that there has been some behind the scenes drama that could have a part to play
We already learned following the cancellation of Luke Cage that there was some conflict between Marvel and Netflix regarding some creative decisions for Luke Cage Season 3 and it appeared that the writers room could not put together a cohesive story that everybody was pleased to go with. There were also reports that one party wanted to decrease the episode length however the other party did not agree with this, thus causing even more conflict.
Now it appears that the same sort of conflict arose for both Daredevil and Iron Fist too. We already knew that Netflix wanted to decrease the number of episodes in a season and they did in Iron Fist Season 2, going from 13 episodes to 10 episodes, however according to former head of strategy of Amazon Studios; Matthew Ball, it appears that the service wanted to cut down the episodes even more, by almost half.
While this decision would most certainly pleased the fans of the shows given the common complaint of the seasons feeling too dragged out, it was clear that Marvel and the writers were not happy with this decision as they believed that they would not be able to tell the stories they wanted to tell in the best way that they possibly could with a decreased episode count.
Add on top the fact that Marvel used to be a big draw for customers to come over and try Netflix, the service has proven that it has now transcended beyond needing the Marvel name in order to get viewers thanks to the success of shows such as Narcos and Ozark.
While it is unclear of the future of these Marvel Netflix characters, given that they are connected to the grander MCU, we are sure that we have not seen the last of The Defenders.
