Marvel fans were left upset Monday after Netflix rebranded a social media page for Marvel crossover series The Defenders to "NX," a geek-friendly division of genre content — a change that signified the streaming giant won't be moving forward with a sophomore season.
Netflix has since altered The Defenders' Facebook page to @nxonnetflix, but left its official Twitter page untouched. The Facebook page being abandoned is the latest blow to hit the series following Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb saying a followup season is "not in the plans right now."
The series, labeled a "limited series" on Netflix, looks to remain a one-off: star Krysten Ritter, who plays troubled super-powered investigator Jessica Jones, said the eight-episode crossover was envisioned as a one-time-only event and future episodes are unlikely.
"I had a great time doing The Defenders and honestly, it was such a good experience that I would even do it again," she told Vulture. "I don't think we are doing it again. It was never intentioned to do it again, but, you know, if I was given another opportunity, I would."
Belonging to the TV-MA television corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — best known for the cross-pollination approach to its interconnected movie franchises — Defenders brought that same mentality to the small screen, bringing together four separately-established series in Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
While Netflix doesn't release ratings for its shows, Defenders fared well with critics and audiences, scoring a 76% "fresh" on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and a 75% "liked it" audience score.
The novelty of bringing together different-minded superheroes with differing backgrounds and personalities played strong in big screen hits The Avengers and Avengers: Infinity War, leaving fans frustrated at both the apparent cancellation of future Defenders runs and the sneaky, quiet erasure of its Facebook page — a move that some have since accused of being underhanded as angry viewers air their grievances on Netflix's new NX landing page on Facebook.
"People aren't mad about the content. People are mad that there was a bait and switch. We followed for one thing and then you changed it completely on us," Facebook user Ellie Baumen wrote. "I probably would've followed had you made a new page but I'm not rewarding this kind of behavior. You should have just made a new page and promoted it on your other pages to get followers."
"So make a new page and restore The Defenders," wrote Dylan Henning. "There are people who actually want a dedicated page for that show."
Asked Andrew Brown, "Why not create a new page instead of hijacking another's page?" Sharee Kaisharis agreed, writing, "I would have been happy and excited to check out what new stuff you guys have to show but this was a really stupid way to go about it."
"You should've made a new page, instead of driving away every single person who liked this page for Defenders related content/updates," wrote Kevin Koshy. "Don't try to justify your clearly bad decision, fix your mistake and make a dedicated NEW page."
"What a dumb move," wrote Ryan Napravnik. "Someone needs to fire whoever did this. Market it as a new page and make a post on the Defenders page. You'd get a more positive reaction."
Netflix's Facebook post enforcing the change with a video has garnered over 4,000 reactions, including more than 500 "angry" reactions.