Netflix cancels 'Luke Cage' and 'Iron Fist,' jeopardizing Marvel's ambitious superhero project
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It is a truth universally acknowledged — when a company (or politician) wants to bury an embarrassing story, it's released on Friday afternoon, after most people have tuned out for the weekend. The practice has become so widespread it even has a name: the Friday night news dump. Netflix must’ve really wanted to bury the news that it was canceling “Iron Fist” and “Luke Cage” — two of the four original TV series commissioned from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2013 — because news of the former broke first last Friday, Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. ET, and the latter didn't become widely known until this Friday night at 10 p.m. ET.
Marvel fans should be worried. The Netflix shows are not without their flaws, but allowing them to die would be a real loss for the genre.
The timing is not great for Netflix, which released the third season of sibling show “Daredevil” on Friday, Oct. 19. The bigger problem here is that Netflix originally designed these shows to intersect but has been inconsistent in doing so, leaving some storylines feeling unmoored. It was an interesting experiment, but for it to successfully continue, Netflix will have to figure out a way for the various plots to stand on their own — and more interesting ways to get them to work together. If Netflix can’t find a way to do this, Marvel’s parent company Disney is liable to dominate the superhero landscape on TV going forward as their new streaming service becomes the (much more family friendly) choice for Marvel starting in 2019. There are already Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) shows on several different networks, most of which are at least partially owned by Disney. Netflix is the only non-Disney owned company currently producing MCU series. This is due in large part to Netflix’s unparalleled commitment to the Marvel community, as the ambitious slate of interlocking plotlines proves.
The goal was to recreate an episodic movie franchise, but for TV. Much like Marvel’s "Phase I," Netflix’s opening gambit featured a man in a red suit taking on vigilante justice. The other shows similarly echoed big screen Marvel archetypes: Luke Cage was given super-soldier serum like the origin story behind "Captain America," Jessica Jones was as offbeat as "Thor" and "Iron Fist" featured a lead who most complained was terribly miscast, like Edward Norton's "Hulk." Then the whole Netflix gang got together in “The Defenders” and reluctantly formed a team, like in “The Avengers.”
Netflix cancels 'Luke Cage' and 'Iron Fist,' jeopardizing Marvel's ambitious superhero project
Netflix and Marvel need to start thinking outside the box before audiences drift away — or Disney steals them.
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