Marvel and Netflix had a “fistfight” over the quality of shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, according to Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
In November 2013, Marvel and Netflix struck a deal to create several television shows based on Marvel Comics characters. This included Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and The Defenders.
Why did Netflix and Marvel have a fistfight over shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones?
Reflecting on that era of Netflix, Sarandos described the collaboration, via Variety, as “the biggest deal in the history of television.”
He continued, “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.
“…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.”
Reflecting on what the streaming platform learned from that experience, Sarandos said, “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.”
All the Netflix Marvel shows were canceled by early 2019, largely because Marvel’s parent company Disney was launching its own streaming platform, Disney+. The shows were then all removed from Netflix in 2022, as Disney regained the licenses for them and put them on Disney+ instead.
Originally reported by Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype.
