It’s finally happened: both Jessica Jones and The Punisher have been cancelled, reports Deadline, rendering Netflix’s Marvel universe well and truly dead.
The news follows the cancellations of Luke Cage, Daredevil and Iron Fist. There’s still Jessica Jones Season 3 on the way, but after that we’ll have to bid a final farewell to the Defenders.
“Marvel’s The Punisher will not return for a third season on Netflix,” reps at Netflix said in a statement. “Showrunner Steve Lightfoot, the terrific crew, and exceptional cast including star Jon Bernthal, delivered an acclaimed and compelling series for fans, and we are proud to showcase their work on Netflix for years to come.
“In addition, in reviewing our Marvel programming, we have decided that the upcoming third season will also be the final season for Marvel’s Jessica Jones. We are grateful to showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, star Krysten Ritter and the entire cast and crew, for three incredible seasons of this groundbreaking series, which was recognised by the Peabody Awards among many others.
“We are grateful to Marvel for five years of our fruitful partnership and thank the passionate fans who have followed these series from the beginning.”
Marvel TV, led by Jeph Loeb, also issued a (somewhat more emotional) statement, which you can read below:
It had never been done before. Four separate television series, each with different super-talented showrunners, writers, directors, cast and crew, coming out months apart and then …they would meet in a single event series all set in the heart of New York City. We called them The Defenders.
And together we were thrilled by stories of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and even the Punisher joined in! They said it couldn’t be done. But Marvel assembled amazing teams to write, produce, direct, edit, and score 13 seasons and 161 one-hour episodes. Take a moment and go online and look at the dazzling list of actors, writers, directors, and musicians who graced us with the very best of their craft.
We loved each and every minute of it.
And we did it all for you — the fans — who cheered for us around the world and made all the hard work worth it.
On behalf of everyone at Marvel Television, we couldn’t be more proud or more grateful to our audience. Our Network partner may have decided they no longer want to continue telling the tales of these great characters… but you know Marvel better than that.
As Matthew Murdock’s Dad once said, ‘The measure of a man is not how he gets knocked to the mat, it’s how he gets back up.’ To be continued…!
Netflix nor Marvel gave much of a reason for cancelling the shows, but we’re convinced it’s so upcoming streaming service Disney+ can have a monopoly on Marvel TV series.
Jessica Jones Season 3 doesn’t yet have an air date. Get all the latest superhero news with every issue of SciFiNow.
