Netflix’s Marvel Defenders shows were all canceled.
Sarah Shatz/Netflix
The sprawling beast that is Disney has, it turns out, a downside. Jeph Loeb, chief of Marvel TV, suggested he’d been left out of the loop when it came to Netflix canceling its Marvel TV shows, following the streamer’s breakup with Marvel TV overlord Disney.
“The hardest part was while the situation at Netflix of which I really can’t go into other than to say that we were blindsided and the things that were to come weren’t finished yet,” Loeb said in an interview with Deadline published on Monday.
In 2017 Disney dropped the bombshell that it would be pulling all its movies from Netflix by 2019 and not renewing its contract with the streamer. While it got on with plans for its own mammoth streamer, Netflix went on to cancel its Marvel TV shows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Punisher. The heroes in the first four of those shows had formed the groundbreaking Defenders crossover miniseries in 2017.
Outside Netflix, a bunch of streamers that share Disney corporate parenthood currently host Marvel TV shows. Two of those on different platforms will even see another groundbreaking crossover: Cloak & Dagger on Freeform and Runaways on Hulu.
Loeb touched on what Marvel TV looks for in a streamer relationship. “A lot of times the reason why Marvel lands on a platform is because of the people. When they get it, when they want us,” Loeb said.
Red flags come in the form of big agendas.
“I’ve been on the other side of that, I’ve been the writer producer, who’s tried to work with the network, and there’s a whole agenda that’s going on that you don’t know anything about, you’re just making your show,” said Loeb, who’s written for Smallville and Heroes.
In talking about Marvel TV’s embrace of animated shows, including the idea of an animated Deadpool, Loeb brought up the Defenders and confirmed he was putting together a team of heroes again but in the world of animation. This band of misfits, including Howard the Duck, will be known as the Offenders and have a place on Hulu. Loeb also confirmed Ghost Rider and Helstrom projects are in the pipeline.
One thing Loeb had to clear up is that Marvel Studios, not Marvel Television, is in charge of all those Disney Plus shows coming out, like Loki and Hawkeye. He did confirm Marvel TV is going to do shows with Disney Plus, but has no announcements for us yet.
Netflix did not have a comment, while Disney and Marvel TV have not yet responded to a request for comment.