In a move that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, Netflix has followed up the cancellations of Daredevil, Iron Fist and Luke Cage by also cancelling The Punisher and Jessica Jones. But could these shows find a future elsewhere? It looks possible…

The Punisher season 2 aired recently on Netflix and Jessica Jones season 3 had already been filmed. These already-shot episodes will see a release on Netflix, but it seems like nothing further from the Defenders universe will be produced by Netflix after that.

Netflix gave this statement to Deadline:

“Marvel’s The Punisher will not return for a third season on Netflix. Showrunner Steve Lightfoot, the terrific crew, and exceptional cast including star Jon Bernthal, delivered an acclaimed and compelling series for fans, and we are proud to showcase their work on Netflix for years to come.

“In addition, in reviewing our Marvel programming, we have decided that the upcoming third season will also be the final season for Marvel’s Jessica Jones. We are grateful to showrunner Melissa Rosenberg, star Krysten Ritter and the entire cast and crew, for three incredible seasons of this groundbreaking series, which was recognized by the Peabody Awards among many others”.

“We are grateful to Marvel for five years of our fruitful partnership and thank the passionate fans who have followed these series from the beginning.”

Marvel’s TV boss Jeph Loeb wrote an open letter to fans using the official Marvel website. The most interesting segment came at the end of the piece, which we’ll share below:

“On behalf of everyone at Marvel Television, we couldn’t be more proud or more grateful to our audience.

“Our Network partner may have decided they no longer want to continue telling the tales of these great characters… but you know Marvel better than that.

“As Matthew Murdock’s Dad once said, ‘The measure of a man is not how he gets knocked to the mat, it’s how he gets back up.’

“To be continued…!”

It seems fairly clear that Marvel has some form of announcement coming that will please fans of the Defenders shows. Will Marvel relaunch these shows on the Disney Plus streaming service, which has been pegged as the Mouse House’s rival to Netflix? It seems very possible, but we’ll just have to wait and see to find out exactly what Marvel is plotting.

As we hear more, we’ll be sure to let you know.