Marvel gets its characters back from Netflix. They gave quite a lot of play while they lasted, but it didn’t take Netflix long to get rid of them, once Disney began to prepare its leap to video on demand. We are talking about the Marvel characters that had series on Netflix, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher, whose control returns to the hands of the company that created them.
They tell it in ComicBook, where they lucubrate about what could happen now that these superheroes are back under the wing of Marvel Studios: Will we see them appear on screen again, perhaps continuing the adventures they left halfway and played by the same cast that gave them life on Netflix? Maybe Marvel will be encouraged to give them an outlet, but completely rebooting what has already been seen?
The only thing that is known at the moment, is that nothing is known. Netflix started very well the different series of each of the characters mentioned: Daredevil was applauded by critics and audiences; Jessica Jones less, but still maintained a very acceptable level; Luke Cage lost some steam and the same happened with Iron Fist, as well as with the new seasons that were coming out of each of them.
The reason? The most repeated criticisms alluded, precisely, to the repetition of a formula that soon failed: Adult tone, but cardboard effects; Plots that were too long and ended up a boring… The most obvious example was seen with the crossover of The Defenders, in which the four heroes got together to give blows to the bad guys on duty.
The appearance on the scene of the fifth element, The Punisher, seemed to give some air to the invention, but it did not last long either. All in all, if there is one thing that the Netflix series did manage to do, it was to define the characters very well, including villains of the caliber of Kingpin or Kilgrave. And who says the characters, says the actors who played them: They all fit like a glove in their respective roles.
So much so, that it is even rumored that Charlie Cox (Daredevil) could appear as a guest superhero in the next Spider-Man movie in the suit of the man without fear’. We’ll have to see it to believe it. However, if there is one thing that admits no discussion, it is that of all the Marvel characters used by Netflix for its series, Daredevil is by far the most popular, followed by The Punisher (The Punisher of all time).
However, it doesn’t give the feeling that Marvel has any interest or even dares to pick up what Netflix has done for Disney+. First of all, because it has much more powerful franchises on its hands, also linked to its major film releases around the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) from which hangs The Avengers and other tentacles. There are already Scarlet Witch and Vision and soon it will be the turn of Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
And secondly and more importantly, because the tone of the Netflix series does not fit at all with the trademark prudishness of the UCM. It’s hard to imagine on Disney+ a series with The Punisher mercilessly ripping apart everything in front of him and leaving a trail of corpses in his wake, or Luke Cage banging Jessica Jones-like there’s no tomorrow. It costs a lot.
