Daredevil fans and the people behind it were taken off guard when Netflix canceled the show, especially since it was going to start filming its fourth season not long after the announcement was made.
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The news of Daredevil‘s cancellation came in November, and as Amy Rutberg explains (who plays Marci), the show was already gearing up to start shooting season 4 in February. They already had extensive plans for what they wanted in the new season, and Rutberg confirms it was very much a Netflix decision.
“My contacts at Marvel were very surprised,” Rutberg told Inverse. “Any of the rumors that it was a Marvel decision are wrong, I think it was purely a Netflix decision. That comes from personal conversations with people high up at Marvel. They were surprised.”
“We had heard rumors we would start production as early as February 2019,” Rutberg said. “It’s a little unusual to be that far ahead in the planning and cancel the show, which makes me think Netflix was laboring over whether or not to cancel it. My guess was it was not an easy decision.”
This fits with earlier reports that Netflix was actively trying to renegotiate the terms of their contract with Disney and Marvel, and once that wasn’t going to happen they went with Plan B, which was to cancel the show.
Rutberg also spoke a bit about the reported stipulation in the contract with Netflix that prohibits those characters or shows from appearing in other projects for a set amount of time.
“There is this very real contract with Netflix,” Rutberg said. “I had heard 18 months, maybe it’s 2 years. I suppose it’s possible that Marvel could buy them out, but I have not heard so much as a whisper.”
That means an appearance on Disney + seems unlikely unless Disney can work something out with Netflix, but Rutberg did say that there is power with the fans.
“Fans should know there really is power in social media,” Rutberg said. “That’s how companies like Netflix track the success of these shows: How much people are talking about them on social media. Your tweets and hashtags have power. People are listening.”
As for the canceled season 4, Rutberg was excited to see who the big bad of that season would end up being.
“It would have been really interesting to see which villains they would have come up with in Season 4,” she says. “I don’t think it would have been something big with Wilson Fisk. That was played out. Maybe in Season 5. Everyone sort of thought the show would run a solid five seasons in total.”
Daredevil season 3 is currently available on Netflix. The Punisher season 2 hits in January, while Jessica Jones season 3 hits later next year.
