We get insights into the Marvel deal at Netflix from Ted Sarandos who reveals the streamer actually wanted to make the shows better, which includes Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Defenders.
At the time, Marvel TV was separate from Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios, and reportedly, the two didn’t get along. Marvel TV was under Ike Perlmutter who is notorious for being frugal, and they produced the Marvel Netflix shows.
Netflix wanted to make great Marvel TV
In an interview with Variety, Ted Sarandos, the head of Netflix, stated he wanted to make great television but Marvel TV pushed back:
On our shows, we were dealing with the old Marvel television regime, which operated independently at Disney. And they were thrifty. And every time we wanted to make the shows bigger or better, we had to bang on them. Our incentives were not well aligned. We wanted to make great television; they wanted to make money. I thought we could make money with great television.
Biggest deal in the history of television
Netflix had also launched House of Cards, thought to be the streamer’s biggest deal at the time; however, Sarandos reveals it was actually Marvel:
Like the idea that “House of Cards” was the biggest deal ever in content. By far, our Marvel deal [in 2013] was the biggest deal in the history of television. No one will ever touch it. We committed to five original seasons of TV with no pilots, 13 expensive episodes for each show centered around one character. And then a crossover season. Ultimately, we learned a lot about the entertainment business on that deal.
Marvel didn’t spend, they kept
Sarandos continues and explains what he learned from working with Marvel TV — that it’s best to work for yourself, as Marvel TV ended up keeping the money for themselves, in what sounds like it was meant to improve the shows (which you can argue would have benefited both Netflix and Marvel):
You want to work with people whose incentives are aligned with yours. When people are producing for you, they’re trying to produce as cheaply as possible. My incentive is to make it as great as possible. That’s a lesson that I take forever. As producers, whatever [Marvel] didn’t spend, they kept. So every time we wanted to add something to the show to make it better, it was a fistfight.
What happened to Marvel TV?
Eventually, the Marvel deal ended with Netflix, and years later, Kevin Feige would take over all of Marvel, removing those involved with Perlmutter’s Marvel TV, including Perlmutter and Jeph Loeb.
However, that didn’t stop the Man Without Fear from being born again as due to the popularity of the Netflix shows, Kevin Feige brought Charlie Cox back in Spider-Man: No Way Home and then a full Daredevil appearance in She-Hulk. Vincent D’Onofrio was also brought back in Hawkeye.
Daredevil: Born Again
Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again recently premiered on Disney+ but that hasn’t been without its own problems as Feige retooled the show to make it more in line with the Netflix series, but fans seem on the fence as it’s known the viewership is really low.
Perhaps rather ironically, Disney has now yanked the budgets of its Marvel Disney+ shows, which is pretty evident with Daredevil: Born Again and shows like Agatha and Echo.
Disney had spent billions on shows like Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Secret Invasion, but they failed to attract viewers, so Marvel Studios overhauled its own TV division and appears to be following the previous regime’s approach: low-budget, street-level shows.
It’s a shame when you think about it—imagine what a $200 million Daredevil show could have looked like. Now, the low viewership likely justifies the budget cuts in the minds of Disney execs, even though the problem isn’t “Daredevil” or “Marvel”—it’s the people who developed the MCU on Disney+. And now the fans are the ones paying the price.
