News breaking tonight that Netflix has managed to do what Wilson Fisk, the Punisher, and a whole buttload of ninjas never could: Kill off The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. Variety is reporting that Marvel’s Daredevil is the latest Marvel Netflix show to be hit with a cancellation notice, signalling that whatever partnership once existed between the two companies is now well and truly dead.
In a statement, Netflix assured fans that the series—which recently aired its third season, to middling reviews and a patently lousy ending—will remain in its existing form on the service, assuaging potential fears that the rise of Disney’s new streaming service, Disney+, would see it slurp up the so-called “Defenders-verse” for itself. (Not that we don’t expect the entertainment mega giant to capitalize on the intermittent popularity of Charlie Cox’s take on Matt Murdock by putting its own version of the character into production once the dust has settled.)
With the earlier deaths of Iron Fist and Luke Cage, that only leaves Jessica Jones—ever the survivor—as the sole extant member of the original slate of street-level Marvel shows. (Later addition The Punisher also still has a second season supposedly in the works.) Netflix is reportedly still on the hook for a third season of the Krysten Ritter-starring series, but we wouldn’t hold our breaths at this point for her coming back for a fourth. Meanwhile, we’ll raise a toast to Daredevil, a show that was sometimes way dumber than it needed to be, but which frequently managed to sell itself nevertheless with fantastic performances, plus some of the best fight sequences to ever make their way to TV.