Don’t get your hopes up for The Defenders appearing on Disney+ for some time

With the cancellations of Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Daredevil, Netflix's line-up of Marvel TV shows has been considerably lessened, but following the cancellation of Daredevil, Marvel hinted that audiences could "look forward to more adventures with the Man without Fear in the future." However, for those of you thinking that Daredevil and the other Defenders will get a second shot on Disney+, their upcoming streaming service, well, you're out of luck, at least for now.

According to Variety, sources have told them that Netflix's deal with Marvel regarding the original four Marvel TV shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist) includes a clause which prevents the characters from appearing in any non-Netflix series or film for at least two years after the cancellation of the series. If this is indeed the case, that would mean that we likely wouldn't get to see Daredevil, Luke Cage, or Iron Fist on Disney+ until 2020 at the earliest. As Jessica Jones is currently still among us (it's set to air its third season next year), any sort of follow-up to The Defenders would have to be pushed back until 2021, but that's assuming that Jessica Jones will follow in the footsteps of Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Daredevil and receive the axe next year as well. When it comes to The Punisher, that particular series was not part of the same deal which spawned the original four shows, which means that it's possible that the show could survive beyond its second season. That said, I'm not about to hold my breath. It was revealed earlier today that the second season of The Punisher will debut in January 2019, so if the series is destined for cancellation-land, we probably won't have to wait too long before we find out.

Disney is already planning to include several original Marvel TV shows on Disney+ when it launches. One of those shows is set to revolve around Loki (Tom Hiddleston), with others said to center on Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) as well as the Winter Solider (Sebastian Stan) and Falcon (Anthony Mackie). With those shows on the line-up, Disney+ likely won't need to be in a hurry to bring back the Netflix characters. Shame.