Netflix cancels The Punisher and Jessica Jones

Netflix canceled The Punisher after two seasons and Jessica Jones after three seasons. The final season of Jessica Jones is coming soon.

The end of the Netflix-Marvel shows has come. According to an exclusive report from Deadline, Netflix canceled The Punisher after season 2 and announced Jessica Jones season 3 will be the final season of the series. Jessica Jones season 3 will likely be released on Netflix this spring. Season 3 will be the final season of the series.

This news should surprise absolutely nobody. I think everyone knew The Punisher, Jessica Jones and the rest of the Netflix-Marvel shows were in jeopardy when Netflix canceled Iron Fist and Luke Cage one week apart this fall. There was a little hope The Punisher, Daredevil and Jessica Jones could be renewed, but that basically ended when Daredevil was canceled after a great third season.

According to reports, The Punisher season 2 viewership dropped from season 1. Jessica Jones season 2 also failed to live up to the hype when it premiered in March 2018. Jessica Jones was renewed for a third season, and at that time, it doesn’t look like Netflix planned to cancel all the Marvel shows. That seems like such a long time ago now.

It’s a bummer this didn’t work out better. It had the makings of a great partnership between Netflix and Marvel. In fact, in the beginning, it was great. Daredevil was revolutionary. The first season of Jessica Jones was really good, and Luke Cage’s first few episodes were the best of the Netflix-Marvel era. It’s been pretty much all downhill after that, and it really showed in The Defenders, which was supposed to be this Avengers-like team-up event, but it was just boring, overall.

Netflix is already investing heavily in making their own shows and movies based on comics with The Umbrella Academy, all the Mark Millar shows and movies, and more. With Disney entering the streaming service game with Disney+, it just didn’t make sense for Netflix to fund these projects when viewers had abandoned all but a few of them. I’m disappointed it came to this, but it’s hard to look the other way when it comes to the business aspect of it and the razor-thin margins Netflix is facing in the future.

As mentioned, there is one more Netflix-Marvel series remaining. We don’t know when Jessica Jones is coming back for season 3, but we’ll be sure to let you know when we find out more information. Stay tuned!