The story of who is to blame for the cancellation of Netflix’s “Daredevil” continues, as actress Amy Rutberg, who played Marci Stahl on the superhero series, says the Charlie Cox-led show’s blood is on the streamer’s hands — not Marvel’s.
“My contacts at Marvel were very surprised,” Rutberg (pictured above right) told Inverse, in an interview published last week. “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. 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.”
Rutberg told Inverse “everyone [working on ‘Daredevil’] sort of thought the show would run a solid five seasons in total.”
The series was the first to premiere back in 2015 under the much-ballyhooed (at the time) pact between Netflix and Marvel, when the streamer was just getting into original programming. But as Netflix is becoming more focused on original programming they produce themselves, the streamer gave the Marvel TV series the axe, just over a month after the show’s well-received third season premiered.
The decision came shortly after Netflix moved to cancel two other Marvel series in its lineup, “Iron Fist” and “Luke Cage.” However, the streamer seemed to hint that it wasn’t quite done with The Man Without Fear: “While the series on Netflix has ended, the three existing seasons will remain on the service for years to come, while the Daredevil character will live on in future projects for Marvel,” a Netflix spokesperson said.
The only Marvel series remaining on Netflix are “The Punisher” and “Jessica Jones,” which have already been renewed for their second and third seasons, respectively. “The Punisher’s” next installment is expected to launch in January, with no date set yet for a “Jessica Jones” return.
The move to cancel three of its Marvel TV shows comes as Marvel’s parent company Disney is set to launch a competing streaming service, Disney+, which will feature Marvel-branded TV shows of its own using characters from the big screen Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Netflix declined TheWrap’s request for comment.