Daredevil Might Not Return To Netflix Until 2018

Netflix announced in late July that Daredevil will return for a third season. It was a proclamation that made fans of the series incredibly happy, especially as season two ended with a number of cliffhangers.

The challenge for viewers though will now be one of patience. Based on the supposed production schedule Marvel & Netflix have laid out, the next season of Daredevil might not hit the streaming service until 2018 at the earliest.

In many ways, the delay is not unexpected, although it is disappointing. After the critical success of Daredevil's first season, Netflix released the second season in less than a year. That was a great turnaround for fans of the series, but Daredevil, in many ways, has become a victim of its own success.

A major reason for the third season's longer release date comes as Charlie Cox, the actor who plays Matt Murdock, will star alongside other Marvel heroes in Netflix's The Defenders. The series acts as a mini Avengers, pairing Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist in a fight against evil. It will act a pre-cursor to the next Daredevil season and is set to begin filming later this year, pushing back the production of Daredevil. Of course, if Daredevil did not have the runaway success that it did there never would be a third season, or The Defenders for that matter.

The Daredevil story was always one of the more popular comic books, but the 2003 movie starring Ben Affleck as the title character fell flat. The movie's spin-off, Elektra, starred Jennifer Garner and bombed horribly. With those two movies struggling to capture the public imagination, the series seemed all but dead, at least on the screen.

In reality, the Daredevil series maintained a level of popularity, albeit from an underground fan base. One subtle clue toward this continued trend is actually at an online gaming site, Gambling.com that has a number of superhero-themed games with Daredevil and Elektra being featured among them. The main character of Elektra strongly resembles the Jennifer Garner-version of the character as opposed to Elodie Young from the Netflix series. This shows that the game existed prior to the recent Daredevil boom. The game sits next to titles from other superheroes such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man, so Daredevil is in elite superhero company.

So what will season three of Daredevil look like? In all honesty, no one knows. As Cheat Sheet lays out, one of the major themes will be the split between Murdock and best friend Foggy Nelson from the end of season two. Will the two reunite after Murdock angered Nelson by neglecting his lawyerly duties?

The other big question is who will be the villain? Season one gave us Wilson Fisk (aka the Kingpin), while season 2 brought The Punisher. Both were well received, especially Fisk, who got time spent on his backstory as well adding depth to the show. A major option is Bullseye, one of the major antagonists from the comic books. It's believed Bullseye will show up at some point in this series, but with Daredevil needing to prove his value each season, it's likely the time is now.