Sweet Christmas! What’s happening over at Netflix?!
Just a week after hearing the news that Netflix has cancelled Iron Fist Season 3, it seems that another show has net the executioner’s axe… Luke Cage!
Which is very strange because after the cancellation of Iron Fist there were fears more would go and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said at the time: “Those shows are for us to cancel and we’re super happy with their performance so far.”
And yet, three days later, here we are.
“Unfortunately, Marvel’s Luke Cage will not return for a third season,” Marvel and Netflix said in a statement.
“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.”
The thing is, no-one expected this as showrunner Cheo Hodari Croker had been knee deep in meeting with Marvel as well as scripts and with the cast still under contract it seemed like just a matter of time before the show would return.
However: “The pink slipping of Luke Cage was ultimately a combo of the age old Hollywood “creative differences” and the inability for the parties involved to reach a deal on how to move forward, according to sources. With a season springing from the conclusion of the June 22-launched Season 2 plotted out months ago, detailed drafts for the first half of the 10-episode projected third season were delivered to Marvel and Netflix this week.”
On top of this: “The writers’ room was put on hold for a week in September as the streamer and the Disney-owned company were figuring out the mechanisms of changing the deal for the planned Luke Cage third season from the original 13 episodes to 10 episodes. It eventually escalated to behind-the-scenes turmoil in the past two days and demands for changes in creative regime. With Marvel and Netflix seemingly intractable and on different sides of the disputes, a harsh cancelation became the only viable exit strategy, it appears.”
It seems that, as with any business, money became a big part of the deal: “The situation became tense on the corporate level. The Marvel shows on Netflix are costly to make, even with New York’s generous tax credits. Back in 2013, the streamer paid top dollar for the series that it doesn’t even own, so cutting Luke Cage loose was a shifting bottom line call. With the high cost, there has been pressure on the Marvel series to overperform in viewership. That was easier early on when they were among a handful of Netflix originals but is getting harder today as they compete with dozens of other buzzy shows on the Internet network.”
There is already speculation the Marvel/Disney may step in an bring Cage and Iron Fist over to their streaming service and develop a Heroes for Hire series featuring stars Mike Coulter and Finn Jones but we’ll not get too excited yet.
This was greatly spurred on by Finn Jones posting this on his Instagram:
We can’t help feeling Disney/Marvel are cleaning house a bit but who knows…
That said, we’re glad to report that Mike Coulter is riding high and not letting the news get him down. Congrats!
I am forever grateful to Marvel and Netflix for letting me portray such a prolific character, and I thank you amazing fans. As one door closes, another has opened, with the birth of my daughter this week. A lot of great memories. Time to make more. Always forward, forward always pic.twitter.com/Dvv4YOBeEE
— Mike Colter (@realmikecolter) October 22, 2018
Source: Deadline
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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