Anyone know someone looking to hire some out-of-work Heroes For Hire? Hot on the heels of the release of Daredevil Season 3—and the recent cancellation of Marvel’s Iron Fist—Variety reports that Luke Cage has now been kicked to the streaming curb, too.
The service made the announcement earlier tonight, and whereas the earlier killing of Iron First sounded like it was mostly Disney’s doing, this time Netflix made it clear that it passed on a third season of the Mike Colter-starring series. “Unfortunately, Marvel’s Luke Cage will not return for a third season,” a company spokesperson said. “Everyone at Marvel Television and Netflix is grateful to the dedicated showrunner, writers, cast and crew who brought Harlem’s Hero to life for the past two seasons, and to all the fans who have supported the series.” Variety says it has sources who confirmed that Netflix was the one who said “no more” to Luke’s bulletproof endeavors.
This is pretty disappointing news, both because Luke Cage was actually a pretty good show—hosting great fights, great music, and one of the rare platforms for black performers to star in this sort of high-profile superhero series—and because it makes it clear that the Netflix-Marvel split is now well and truly underway. For what it’s worth, Netflix has already ordered a third season of Jessica Jones, although who knows what we can expect to happen after that.