Today we got the big news; and while I wish there were less reports of this in the past so it would have been more surprising, it is nonetheless amazing. Charlie Cox is coming back as Daredevil, with other Netflix show-based characters (like Kingpin) possibly coming back to the MCU anytime in the next four weeks.
So how is Marvel going to honor the legacy of these shows and these characters? The first thing we were all worried about was whether they were going to bring back the actors, and it seems like Marvel is very keen on getting them all back. We now know that Charlie Cox is a 100% for any time in the future, and Vincent D'Onofrio has been hinting towards his possible role in Hawkeye for months now. Meanwhile, we've heard rumors about Krysten Ritter (who could've come back in She-Hulk) and Jon Bernthal returning, and it was revealed by Jessica Henwick that she was asked to play a role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings - though she chose The Matrix 4 instead. While I am still worried about the fate of Mike Colter and Finn Jones' respective Luke Cage and Iron Fist, I have a good feeling that (at least for Colter's sake) that they will be back in due time.
So where did we leave off?
There are a lot of loose ends and storylines that the shows never was able answer or finish teling. In 2018, Netflix cancelled Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Daredevil all within weeks of each other. A few months later in February 2019 they cancelled The Punisher and Jessica Jones.
Iron Fist, which was the easiest show to cancel due to the still not-so-great response from its second season, could have been a lot better in season three as Colleen Wing would have taken a larger role as the new Iron Fist, and we would have seen Rand and Ward Meachum search for Kun' Lun. Add to that Orson Randall - in the comics a former Iron Fist - was being set up as a villain, making for an interesting conflict. Add to that the possibility of re-exploring the Hand, as it never was actually confirmed whether or not Elektra and Madame Gao had actually died.
Luke Cage had a lot of loose ends too. Bushmaster was still out and walking at the end of Season Two, and Luke Cage was becoming sort of a bad guy - and taking him down might take a force of heroes (something he was hinting towards in Jessica Jones' final episode). We also could have seen Claire Temple again and while I think in the end if (when) Jones or Cage returns, they'll have a long-lasting relationship like in the comics, but she would have been nice to see again; though I'm pretty sure Rosario Dawson is booked with Ahsoka for now.
Daredevil was the best of every single MCU Netflix show by a mile (Jessica Jones was pretty good too though). Out of all of the endings these shows gave us; however, this was definitely the most satisfying and fitting with how the MCU can move forward - I'll explain that later. However, if it would have considered we likely would have seen two more seasons (something revealed by former cast member Amy Rutburg). In the fourth season we would have seen a new villain, and in the fifth season Fisk and Daredevil would have had their final showdown. Meanwhile, Bullseye was certainly being set up as a villain (and hopefully can still be one today; though it might be hard with continuity and everything.
The Punisher ended on a decent note - most of the loose ends from season one (like Billy Barnes as Jigsaw and his character arc) had been tied up, and while it might be interesting to see somebody like Dr. Dumont return as an antagonist of some sort and Dinah Madani, Curtis Hoyle, and Frank Castle's characters develop a bit more, I didn't really like the 13 episode format for The Punisher as I felt that it was a bit too much - give this man a break people!!! I didn't really see them having more then three seasons of the show anyway, but I would have given him another chance.
Jessica Jones was an absolutely spectacular show that certainly deserved another season or two. Almost all of the character arcs in season three were still unfinished, especially Malcolm Ducasse (and his girlfriend Zaya, who I bet could have had an even bigger and different role in season four), Jeri Hogarth (who either could've turned more evil or more heroic later on before succumbing to ALS), Erik Gelden (a superhero in his own right now), and Jessica Jones herself. In the end her story closed off on an okay note in a sense - as her and Trish's relationship had kind of wrapped up, but there could've been more to explore with that. All and all, this could have run for five seasons just like Daredevil and is more of a dissapointment looking back.
So was the cancellation actually a blessing in disguise?
For the timeline's sake, yes, yes it was. What our geniuses at the wiki have come to conclusion with is the fact that The Punisher S2 and Jessica Jones S3 ended days before Infinity War in May 2018. Sure, there is a Punisher scene set after the blip that I imagine would have been a bit darker in a recently decimated world; but that's why I'm actually kind of grateful everything got cancelled because we can assume that everything going for these characters got messed up after the snap. If any of them got snapped that would mess up certain things about their character/arcs that they still needed to continue - for Matt Murdock it would have taken him away from protecting New York City (and leave it without somebody to protect them from the wrath of Kingpin), Jessica Jones pretty pissed that she missed all that time though that's all, for Jeri Hogarth it would have left her with more time in the world before becoming paralyzed for life, Luke Cage without his newly found status as the King of Harlem, and Danny Rand's mission to find Kun' Lun stuck in the trash can (I'm assuming that The Punisher and Kingpin survived due to 1) The Punisher's ending scene and 2) what Hawkeye has been inferring about Kingpin during the decimation.
So where does that leave us now?
I think that the snap leaves the Netflix shows on a clean slate - for a bunch of characters they either had five years of time to move on to new things or five years of time lost where they're now forced to move on to new things. While I'm not yet sure what to say about the future of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, Colleen Wing (I'm betting they'd let her survive the snap just to put that out there), and Frank Castle yet, I think that Daredevil and Kingpin are going to be really important in the future. The storyline I see them going with to connect it back is that Matt Murdock snapped away leaving New York defenseless against Wilson Fisk. That left Fisk (who survived) time to get out of jail build back an empire of crime before it got crippled by Ronin. That's where we're left off now - with Clint Barton and Kate Bishop stuck in the middle of this conflict and Matt Murdock just re-entering it as a major player. The set up is perfect - its as if Daredevil S3 was made just for Hawkeye (keep an eye on the Presidential Hotel in Hawkeye E1, a main location in Daredevil S3), and it makes sense that we are seeing all this big news now as it has been two years; with some extra time thanks to COVID, since these shows were cancelled and not long since Marvel Studios has been able to use these characters again (so why not cancel them so you can use them again in two years? IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW!!!). It seems like there are going to be different levels of the MCU going forward, one of them being on the street, and that the Marvel Netflix characters are going to be key to it.
The big question is what are some directions that they were thinking about taking these characters in the past that you still want them to continue with? For me that would be fulfilling the Bullseye tease at the end of Daredevil S3, diving deeper into Luke Cage's Harlem empire, expanding on Colleen Wing's role as Iron Fist, and completing the arcs of Jessica Jones' side characters (idk that just really left me annoyed when I finished watching it).
So, what do you think? Looking at it with the new light of the snap playing into everything, was it the cancellation of all these shows a blessing in disguise? How will they continue on with these characters in the mainstream MCU? What storylines will they continue, which ones will they leave out? And how fast will it take for all of these characters to come back (if they ever do), and in what projects will we see them? Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments below!
