Earlier this month, the news broke that Daredevil: Born Again will end after the show's upcoming third season.
The decision came around two months after Season 3 wrapped filming, with Marvel "quietly" parting ways with showrunner Dario Scardapane, whose contract was up and was not renewed.
Though disappointing, the news wasn't entirely unexpected. We had heard that Born Again would run for "at least" three seasons, but despite being very popular with fans and critics, the show was never a major ratings hit for Marvel Television, and it's now very clear that the studio is pulling back on the number of streaming projects it puts into development.
While speaking to Brandon Davis, Marvel TV boss Brad Winderbaum claimed that ending the show after three seasons was the plan from the beginning.
"The plan was always to make a third season, to culminate it at three," he explained. "The way we were looking at it, the original series is three seasons, Born Again three seasons. They're kind of like trade paperbacks, collections you can slot into your shelves."
However, Winderbaum then appeared to contradict himself by suggesting that if more people had watched the series, it might have continued.
"I felt like I was part of '#SaveDaredevil,'" he replied when Davis asked if the show could return down the line. "You know it's interesting the internet, it's not what it used to be even a few years ago when you could stage a campaign and get something made like that. 'Save Daredevil' is great but we also need 'hashtag Watch Daredevil'. The biggest leverage I have, and I say this all the time, is the actual viewership numbers. That's what people are looking for, that's where I get my power to be able to make something or not. I just want people to watch the show."
"The way we were looking at it: the original series is three seasons. Born Again, three seasons... and then we'll take a breath and figure out what's next for the character," he added.
A bigger shock than Born Again coming to an end was Wonder Man being cancelled after already being renewed for a second season.
"I fought for it, I don't know what to say. It's complicated," said Winderbaum when asked about the recent development. "Sometimes you feel like you're invincible and can make whatever you want, sometimes, you don't have leverage, it's subject to market forces that I like barely understand."
"But creatively it's one of the best teams I've ever worked with, I love that cast, I love Destin [Daniel Cretton], I love Andrew [Guest], I fought for the show, we all did. Everyone at Marvel wanted to see it happen. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I still have hope that by some miracle, there's a way to do something down the road."
We'd be very surprised if Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and the Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), at the very least, didn't make the jump to the big screen at some point, but including Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) in the main MCU lineup might be more of a challenge.
Across eight gripping episodes, survival, resistance and redemption collide as the battle for the soul of New York begins," reads the season 2 synopsis. "In Season 2, Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil. But beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild."