Update 8/19/26: A new report contradicts the cutback claim below. Puck reports multiple live-action Marvel series are in development for Disney+ with announcements expected soon.
Update: Marvel released the VisionQuest trailer at D23. Watch it here.
Marvel’s live-action Disney+ era is winding down, and the only real surprise is that it took Disney this long to admit it.
Collider reports that following VisionQuest, Marvel Studios will be cutting back on live-action Disney+ shows.
The outlet notes the cutback excludes returning series such as Daredevil: Born Again, which already wrapped filming on Season 3, along with potential miniseries developed under the “Marvel Presents” and “Marvel Spotlight” banners.
Collider adds that Marvel continues to trust Brad Winderbaum, the longtime head of Marvel Studios Streaming and Animation, who was promoted in May to also oversee Comics and Franchise development.
Per the report, the shift in Marvel’s TV plans began to manifest right after that May promotion.
Wonder Man Was Another Warning Sign
This tracks with Disney recently canceling Wonder Man after announcing Season 2, a reversal that came even with star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II landing an Emmy nomination.
Wonder Man was completely left out of Marvel’s big San Diego Comic-Con presence the week before it got the axe.
Kevin Feige didn’t talk Marvel television at all during the SDCC presentation, which was all about Avengers: Doomsday, Ghost Rider, and Black Panther 3 on the big screen.
D23 is this weekend, and per Collider, it would be quite the pivot if there is no live-action series news beyond VisionQuest (on display at the Marvel booth), as the event has been a staple for Marvel show announcements.
The outlet also says it previously heard Disney used shows like The Acolyte, Willow, and even Wonder Man as “grand experiments” to compete with Netflix and HBO Max. No surprise at all that those experiments failed completely.
The Nielsen Numbers Said This Was Coming
None of this should shock anyone who has been following our ratings coverage.
Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel’s marquee street-level series, finished a perfect 0-for-17 on Nielsen across two full seasons, with the Season 2 finale getting no bump at all.
The Punisher: One Last Kill then missed Nielsen in its debut week, coming in under 339 million minutes while a Kevin Hart roast special pulled over a billion the same week.
Luminate data backs it up, showing Disney+ now runs almost entirely on its old library while new Marvel originals barely move the platform.
Luminate’s mid-year figures make the same point from the other end: Daredevil: Born Again was the most-streamed Disney+ original of the first half of 2026, and Disney+ still placed nothing in Nielsen’s mid-year Top 20.
Disney kept spending big money on shows the broad audience simply stopped watching. That math was never going to hold.
Why Animation Survives The Cut
Here’s the part that confirms it’s all about the budgets.
X-Men ’97 Season 2 also failed to chart on Nielsen, landing under Ms. Rachel, and it still got renewed for Seasons 3 and 4 at Comic-Con.
The difference is animation costs a fraction of what Marvel blew on live-action shows like She-Hulk and Secret Invasion, which ran into the hundreds of millions.
So Disney is going the animated route: a similar-sized audience for way smaller checks. Winderbaum, an animation guy, running the whole operation tells you where this is headed.
Disney Told Us This Was Coming
Remember, this pullback has been building for years.
Bob Iger admitted Disney lost $4 billion on streaming and flat out said the company invested too much and told too many stories.
Andor creator Tony Gilroy revealed Disney told him “streaming is dead” and that the money was gone.
Then came the sweeping layoffs across Disney’s TV and film divisions as Iger kept slashing.
The live-action Marvel shows were the most expensive part of a streaming strategy that lost billions. Of course they’re the first thing on the chopping block.
What’s Left
VisionQuest, starring Paul Bettany as White Vision, premieres October 14 on Disney+ and closes out the trilogy that started with WandaVision and Agatha All Along.
After that, it’s Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 in 2027, which is pivoting to a full Defenders reunion after its Nielsen shutout.
Beyond those, the live-action shelf is basically bare, with anything new limited to the occasional “Marvel Presents” or “Marvel Spotlight” special.
Marvel burned through years of goodwill with expensive shows nobody watched. The ratings finally caught up, and now the era is ending exactly the way the numbers said it would.
