Streaming Wars: Marvel Shows are being removed from Netflix at the end of the month

If you’ve had the desire to check out the Netflix Marvel series recently, (We’re talking about the ones that make up The Defenders: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher) you may have seen a notification that states these shows will be removed from the service at the end of the month.

This is likely to elicit one of two responses from you. 

1. You might think “Of course. They’re Marvel series, and Marvel is owned by Disney, and Disney has their own streaming service. Why would Disney let Netflix keep these shows when they could be on Disney+ making money for the mouse? Especially with a revived interest in the characters with cameos that showed up in both Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the Hawkeye 

TV show. 

Or you might think…

2. Wait a minute, those shows were Netflix Originals. They were supposed to be on Netflix forever, no matter what. That’s the whole point of Netflix Originals. What gives?

The answer, of course, lies somewhere in the middle. And it’s complicated, but worth taking a minute to look into. 

The first thing that you need to know is that not all Netflix Originals are the same. Netflix uses the term loosely and doesn’t do a good job distinguishing what the different types of “Netflix Originals” are, but there are a few different types of shows that Netflix considers to be Netflix Originals. 

While sometimes Netflix is fully responsible for the creation and funding of a show, there are other cases, where they are purchasing the rights to a show from a different studio. There are even instances where they are just purchasing streaming rights for certain shows in certain countries, though they continue to brand those as “Netflix Originals.” However, what that title actually means can vary from show to show. 

In this case, Daredevil, and the rest of the shows were created by Disney, for the purposes of streaming on Netflix. It was Marvel’s plan to create four different shows, before having the main heroes of all four shows team up in a crossover mini-series just as they had done with The Avengers. And at the time, a few different services were in discussion of being the home of this project (including Amazon) with Netflix eventually winning. 

So while Netflix had exclusive streaming rights to these shows, they didn’t outright own the series themselves. Given that the first season of Daredevil aired in 2015, and 7 years is a common contract length for exclusive rights, it’s most likely that Netflix’s rights to the series has simply expired, and that all the other series are considered spin-offs in the language of the original contract, tying them to the original air date. 

What makes this more complicated, is that when the Marvel series were canceled in 2018, it was stated that Netflix made the decision to cancel the show. How could that have been a Netflix decision if the shows were in fact being created by Marvel? Again, we have to delve a little bit into the world of speculation since we can’t read the contracts between the companies themselves, but it likely has something to do with Netflix’s issue with fourth seasons. 

Despite Netflix having literally hundreds of Netflix Originals, it’s amazing to see how few of them make it to a fourth season. Many of them will only get one season, and even some of the more popular ones seem to get unexpectedly canceled after the third season. It’s only the biggest, and most successful of the Netflix Originals that get a fourth season and beyond. It is believed that the standard deal with Netflix involved Netflix paying less for the first three seasons, with the stipulation that they’re willing to pay a lot more than usual for the fourth season and up. If a creator believes in the show and thinks it’s going to be the next Stranger Things or House of Cards, it’s potentially a great deal as they’ll get way more money from Netflix in the long run, but it makes Netflix reluctant to greenlight a fourth season on anything less than a surefire smash. 

When it came time to renew Daredevil for a fourth season in 2018, it was a big hit and it seemed like it would be one of the shows to get that rare fourth season, but the series was canceled anyway. The state of streaming had changed a great deal between 2013 and 2018. While Disney+ had not yet launched, it was clear that Disney was in the process of getting into the streaming game, and was it worth it for Netflix to continue to pour money into programs that they would not be able to own forever? 

While we can never know the exact terms of the deal for these shows, nor the exact thought process that led to where we are today, it’s probably a good bet that Disney is looking to pull back on deals that are actively supplying their direct competition with material. (Daredevil recently jumped back into the Top Ten viewed list on Netflix after Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye came out). Disney is probably looking to get all of their properties back under the roof of the House of Mouse. 

So does that mean that Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and the rest will show up on Disney+ as soon as they leave Netflix? Again, right now all we have is speculation. With Matt Murdock and The Kingpin both showing up in MCU properties last year, it’s clear that the actors still want to play the roles, and the creatives behind the MCU have an interest in continuing to explore stories with at least some of these characters. It’s possible that we’ll see Marvel go to work on a long awaited fourth season of Daredevil, though that’s just speculation at this point. 

One issue is that these Netflix shows are all rated TV-MA, while everything else in the MCU is rated PG-13 and is branded as family friendly entertainment. The Netflix shows have a darker tone and focus on more serious themes than anything else on Disney+ right now, especially when it comes to the MCU. 

So, it’s possible that Disney will put these shows not on Disney+ but on Hulu, the other streaming service that they own the majority stake in, and has a good deal of their more adult content. It’s also possible that Disney may decide to release an edited, PG-13 version of the show to try and have it fit more in line with the MCU contact that they already have, though again, there is nothing yet to suggest that either of these is the road they plan on using. 

Right now, all we know is that the shows will be leaving Netflix, striking a blow to the streaming service, as we see one of their most high profile Originals leaving the service. Time will tell when we next see any of the Defenders on the screen again.