A week after dropping his best bud Danny Rand’s show — and oddly on the day the third season of Marvel’s Daredevil drops; strange promotion, Netflix — Marvel and the streaming giant announced Friday that they have also cancelled Marvel’s Luke Cage.
The official statement is a fair amount less ambiguous about the future of the Hero of Harlem than they were about Iron Fist:
“Unfortunately, Marvel’s Luke Cage will not return for a third season. 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.”
Deadline is reporting that the cancellation is surprising and may have more to do with creative differences with series creator and showrunner Cheo Hodari Coker on the direction of the series. The writer’s room was apparently hip-deep in story ideas for the show’s potential third season. Ultimately, a deal couldn’t be made.
Earlier this week, Netflix announced that they were still in the Marvel business for the foreseeable future. Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, and Marvel’s The Punisher are all expected to continue. A third season of Jones has been officially ordered, and the second season of the Frank Castle series is in post-production and expected to be released in early 2019.
Given the interconnectivity of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, it wouldn’t be hard to see a future Heroes for Hire project (series? miniseries? film?) bringing the two casts together. Given their relationship in the comics, Mike Colter putting an appearance or more in the third season of Jessica Jones certainly seems like a strong possibility as well.
One can imagine we’ve hardly seen the last of the Unbreakable Defender.