Marvel Fans Suspect ‘Iron Fist,’ ‘Luke Cage’ Cancellations Signal ‘Heroes for Hire’ Series

Some Marvel fans suspect Netflix cancelling Iron Fist and Luke Cage one week apart could mean the streaming service is looking to merge both shows as Heroes for Hire.

Of the half-dozen Marvel-Netflix productions so far — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher — only the series headlined by Danny Rand (Finn Jones) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter) were canned, and both rather abruptly: Netflix declined to give a reason when announcing the shows had been axed, saying only in joint statements that Fist and Cage would not be renewed for third seasons.

Language in the Iron Fist cancellation statement, released jointly through Disney and Netflix, hinted Iron Fist would return — just not on the Netflix platform.

“Marvel’s Iron Fist will not return for a third season on Netflix,” the statement read. “While the series on Netflix has ended, the immortal Iron Fist will live on.”

Suggestive posts by each series’ social media accounts further hinted their respective heroes and heroines would resurface elsewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Iron Fist shared an image of Rand branded “immortal,” with a caption reading “the story is never over,” while Cage shared an image of its bulletproof superhero with a message reading “always forward.”

A subsequent report from Entertainment Weekly confirmed Iron Fist will continue to appear in the Marvel universe, trailing a statement from Jones published on social media that noted “with every end is a new beginning.”

Shortly after Cage was cancelled Friday, Finn shared a message of solidarity on Instagram, sparking Heroes for Hire speculations when he shared an image depicting the combined might of Rand and Cage’s fists.

Because Disney has halted future dealings with Netflix beyond its original contract and is launching its own streaming service in 2019, which will be home to big-budget Marvel television series centered around Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), some suspected it was Disney who was responsible for the cancellations.

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos clarified such decisions lie solely with Netflix and that “those shows are for us to cancel.”

That comment echoed what Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb told EW in September when fielding questions about a second run of crossover limited series The Defenders, where he explained green lights and cancellations for Marvel TV falls on the networks — in this instance, Netflix.

“Unlike the movie studio, which can announce a Captain Marvel movie will be out in 2019, the television studio will always be beholden to our networks,” Loeb said. “And so if our networks want another season of Iron Fist, we’re ready to go.”

Cage showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker and his writers were already developing a third season before the plug was pulled Friday. Season Three would have seen Cage acting as the new sheriff-slash-king of Harlem and navigating the hefty and sudden responsibility of absolute power.

A potential Heroes for Hire series could team Cage and Rand with fan-favorites Misty Knight (Simone Missick) and Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), as some fans have called for a Daughters of the Dragon spinoff.

“It’s something that’s in the air,” Coker told Empire‘s Pilot TV in April on a potential joint series starring the two heroes, who first teamed up in The Defenders before joining forces again in Cage Season Two.

“Internally at Marvel Television, everybody knows there’s a part of that combination that is inevitable, particularly when you watch them together in the way that we did it. If feels right. It feels good. It feels like, ‘I want to see more of this combination. Heroes for Hire is really not off the table.’”

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