Considering the popularity of Netflix's Daredevil, it came as a huge shock when the series was unceremoniously canned alongside the streaming services' other Marvel shows.
Just like that, we lost the excellent Daredevil, the heartbreaking Jessica Jones, the gritty Punisher, and the thrilling Luke Cage. Iron Fist was also cancelled.
While fans around the world rallied behind the Netflix shows and set up campaigns to have them saved, nobody really understood why they'd been cancelled in the first place. Daredevil especially was a huge hit, and had just finished a critically acclaimed third season.
Fortunately, the Netflix heroes are slowly starting to return to the MCU. Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock has already appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and will start to pop up all over the place. Similarly, Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin showed up at the end of Hawkeye, and it's clear his story is far from over.
Shedding a little more light on the Netflix cancellations, D'Onofrio explained recently that even the actors involved with the show had no idea what was going on for quite a long time. Eventually, however, the reason was made clear: Disney Plus.
"I don't think any of us were okay," D'Onofrio said of the show's cancellation on the latest episode of the Marvel News Desk podcast.
"I think that we were like, 'Oh okay, we had a hit show and now it's gone.' But shortly after that, at same time the #SaveDaredevil groups started to rise, the cast, most of us I believe, but I know Charlie (Cox) and I for sure, and Deborah (Ann Woll), I think we started to learn the reasons why that happened.
"So we understood what Marvel was doing because Disney Plus coming out....When you're in this business a long time like we have all been, it kind of made sense business-wise. What didn't make sense to us was why we wouldn't continue that show or the idea of how that worked and how well it worked. Conceptually, I think we were disappointed but I think we all understood what was going on and it sort of was inevitable. In this business you learn to accept things because you know its a business in the end and there's nothing you can really do about it."
D'Onofrio added that the worst part of not getting to do a season four of Daredevil was that there was "a lot more to explore" with both Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. With both actors back in the game as the characters they portrayed so beautifully on Netflix, let's hope it's not long before Daredevil and Kingpin cross paths once again.
Featured Image Credit: Netflix/MarvelTopics: Spider Man, Netflix, Disney, Marvel