Marvel’s live-action Disney+ slate might not be as dead as everyone thought.
Per Puck’s Julia Alexander in Wednesday’s What I’m Hearing newsletter, multiple live-action Marvel series are in development for Disney+, with announcements expected soon.
That cuts directly against the reporting of the past couple of weeks, which painted a picture of Marvel all but walking away from live-action television.
The Cutback Reports Said The Opposite
Just last week, Collider reported Marvel Studios is cutting back on live-action Disney+ shows following VisionQuest, with exceptions carved out for Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 and smaller miniseries under the “Marvel Presents” and “Marvel Spotlight” banners.
Jeff Sneider went further in his newsletter, writing he was told the Wonder Man cancellation was “part of a larger strategy to effectively exit the live-action TV business,” for the most part if not entirely.
So within a week we’ve gone from Marvel effectively exiting live-action TV to Marvel having multiple live-action series in the pipeline. Both can’t be the whole story.
D23 Fueled The Narrative
The cutback talk only got louder at D23 this past weekend, where Marvel announced zero new series for Disney+.
Alexander reports the silence didn’t go unnoticed inside the industry, with one executive texting her, “I guess our plan is just Spider-Man!”
The only Marvel TV presence at the expo was VisionQuest, which got its trailer Friday night ahead of its October 14 premiere. It remains the only new Marvel series on the release calendar.
Doomsday Could Be Driving The New Slate
Per Puck, the new batch of X-Men characters debuting in Avengers: Doomsday, plus new theatrical characters such as Nova, which is in development, may bleed into the Disney+ strategy.
That would track with Marvel using the streamer to support the movies instead of competing with them, which is where all the reporting agrees the priority now sits.
The Defenders Comeback Opens The Door
If Marvel is quietly developing new live-action series, the street-level corner already has candidates lined up.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 is staging a full Defenders reunion, with Charlie Cox joined by Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, Mike Colter’s Luke Cage, and Finn Jones’ Iron Fist for the first time since 2017’s The Defenders.
The show’s action director confirmed Luke Cage’s return on the record with the season halfway through filming.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Back in 2019, Marvel insiders filled us in at San Diego Comic-Con that plans were in place to bring Luke Cage and Iron Fist into the MCU for a Heroes for Hire project.
Nothing ever materialized, but with Colter and Jones now filming Season 3 together, that door is wide open again.
The Heroes for Hire rumor picked up fresh steam when Colter shared photos with Ritter and Jones, and Finn Jones has flat out said he wants to do Heroes for Hire with Colter.
Season 3’s team has floated even more street-level real estate, with Silvera naming Bullseye, White Tiger, and Hellcat as characters worth exploring.
Those are exactly the kind of contained, cheaper shows that fit the “Marvel Spotlight” carve-out in Collider’s report.
To be clear, Puck did not name any titles. But if announcements really are coming soon, a Defenders spinout like Heroes for Hire is the most obvious card Marvel has to play.
Development Isn’t A Greenlight
Worth keeping in mind: shows in development get announced and die all the time, and Marvel just proved it will kill a series even after renewing it, which is exactly what happened with Wonder Man.
It’s also possible both reports are right.
A handful of cheaper limited series under the Spotlight model would satisfy “multiple series in development” while still amounting to a massive cutback from the Phase 4 firehose.
Whatever gets announced, the Nielsen problem hasn’t gone anywhere. Daredevil: Born Again went 0-for-17 on Nielsen across two full seasons, and The Punisher: One Last Kill missed the chart in its debut week.
New Luminate data underlines it. Daredevil: Born Again was the most-streamed Disney+ original of the first half of 2026, and Disney+ still did not place a single original in Nielsen’s mid-year Top 20.
Marvel doesn’t need more announcements. It needs a live-action show the broad audience actually watches. Until that happens, the cutback reports will keep looking like the smart bet.
