There is a darkness in Daredevil that lures the audience in and traps them in a haze of insatiable violence and vengeance. Unlike the overarching storyline of the Marvel universe, Daredevil is not about retribution or avenging the fallen but how one man broken beyond repair rises time and again to answer a higher calling.
The Netflix series was the first of the four street-level superhero stories to find a home at the streamer. Helmed by Charlie Cox in the titular role, Daredevil was a gift that kept on giving with each season being better than the last. As such, one can only imagine the unquantifiable rage of the masses when Netflix announced that Daredevil was finally getting the axe after 3 beautiful seasons.
Netflix’s troubled relationship with Marvel Television
Netflix has had its ups and downs through the years – the worst of it being its disappointing battle with series cancelations and unrealized fan expectations. However, nothing hurt more than the streamer’s decision to sever its ties with Marvel Television and the subsequent eradication of 5 of the greatest projects to come out of the Marvel universe since its conception.
Of the five Marvel x Netflix shows, Daredevil was the first to get the axe, quickly followed by Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. Defenders merely existed on the periphery, never to be brought up again despite the success it enjoyed with its street heroes team-up show.
In an inexplicably sadistic and unrealistic move, Netflix abandoned its Marvel collaboration and canceled the very shows that had helped build an incredible fanbase at the streamer. The irony lay in the fact that the relentless Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, who refused to be defeated by the likes of Kingpin and Bullseye, was finally taken down by a bureaucratic web of decision-makers who passed down judgment upon the world based on statistics and graphs.
The real reason behind Daredevil‘s cancelation
Ted Sarandos, the man who transformed Netflix from a DVD-by-mail company to the streaming Goliath that it is today, claims that its deal with Marvel was, by far, the biggest in the history of television. He holds much pride in the fact, admitting in a Variety interview: “No one will ever touch it.”
However, pride always comes before the fall and it was 5 years into their collaboration with the CBM juggernaut that the Marvel deal began to fall apart. After launching Daredevil in 2013, Netflix was untouchable in terms of storytelling and content.
But the behind-the-scenes struggle to keep making more seasons of the fan-favorite Marvel x Netflix shows was much more complicated than the audience was aware of. In the same Variety interview, Sarandos admitted:
On our shows, we were dealing with the old Marvel television regime, which operated independently at Disney. And they were thrifty. And every time we wanted to make the shows bigger or better, we had to bang on them. Our incentives were not well aligned. We wanted to make great television; they wanted to make money. I thought we could make money with great television.
Understandably, it was only a matter of time before Netflix and Disney began to butt heads on the proper way of handling the shows. In 2018, the niche universe built by Marvel x Netflix began to fall apart with the cancelation of Daredevil after its critically acclaimed third season.
Not only did the decision reflect poorly on Marvel’s handling of their audience expectations but put a dent in their market reputation, too. Sacrificing Daredevil for the sake of money rather than opting for great television is yet another sad reminder of how Hollywood is a well-oiled money-making machine that will sacrifice artistic values for a few bucks.
7 years later, Disney+ attempts to redeem itself by bringing back the original cast of the series in Daredevil: Born Again and picking up where it left off in Season 3 of the Netflix series.
Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
