Netflix canceled Daredevil because of Disney+, Vincent D’Onofrio reveals

The Marvel Cinematic Universe shows on Disney+ have been a wild success since they began airing on the streamer a year ago. WandaVision took superhero storytelling in directions it’s never been before, Loki and What… If? have been renewed for new seasons, and so on.

But those weren’t the first Marvel TV shows set in the MCU. That honor belongs to Netflix shows like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and The Punisher, all of which had devoted followings and all of which were cancelled one by one starting in 2018. The cancellation of Daredevil hit the hardest. The series followed lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock as he took on street-level foes in Hell’s Kitchen. One of the biggest breakouts from the series was Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, played by Vincent D’onofrio. Extremely powerful and hot-tempered, Fisk was continuously a thorn in Murdock’s side. And he recently made his way into the Disney+ MCU shows with a cameo appearance in Hawkeye.

Speaking to Marvel News Desk, D’onofrio weighed in on the unfortunate cancelation of Netflix’s Daredevil. It turns out that the fans weren’t the only ones who were disappointed and confused; the cast was bewildered as well. But looking back, D’onofrio thinks he knows where the blame lies:

"I don’t think any of us were okay. I think that we were like, ‘Oh okay, we had a hit show and now it’s gone.’ You know, at the same time the group #SaveDaredevil started to rise, we started to learn the reasons why that happened and so we understood what Marvel was doing because Disney+ coming out."

Daredevil season 3 ended on something of a cliffhanger, with Benjamin ‘Dex’ Poindexter (Wilson Bethel) seemingly about to take on the Bullseye identity. It’s likely that season 4 would’ve seen him become the main antagonist. Sadly, the idea of a Daredevil-Bullseye face-off will only exist in our imaginations, unless Disney+ picks up the show for a new season. It’s not out of the question yet, since Charlie Cox, who played Matt Murdock, also popped up in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Will Disney revive Netflix’s Daredevil show?

D’onofrio continued to explain how strange the cast found it that the show didn’t continue given its popularity. “You know when you’re in this business a long time like we have all been, it kind of made sense business-wise,” he said. “What didn’t make sense to us was why we wouldn’t continue that show or the idea of how that worked and how well it worked. Conceptually, I think we were disappointed but I think we all understood what was going on and it was sort of was inevitable.”

"In this business you learn to accept things because you know its a business in the end and there’s nothing you can really do about it."

The first three seasons of Daredevil are currently streaming on Netflix. You can catch Kingpin making his first appearance in the MCU proper in Hawkeye, which is now streaming on Disney+.

Might this be a sign of more to come? Who else will make a cameo in a future show? Jessica Jones? Luke Cage? Only time will tell.

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