Actress Alice Eve (“Black Mirror,” “Star Trek: Into Darkness”) has joined the sophomore season of “Marvel’s Iron Fist” in an undisclosed role where she joins returning cast including, Finn Jones (Danny Rand), Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing), Tom Pelphrey (Ward Meachum), Jessica Stroup (Joy Meachum), and Sacha Dhawan (Davos).

Fans of the Marvel Television series recently canceled by Netflix who hope to see the shows revived on Disney+ may be out of luck.

Sources tell Variety that the deal for the original four Marvel shows includes a clause that prevents the characters from appearing in any non-Netflix series or film for at least two years after cancellation. That means that “Daredevil,” “Luke Cage,” and “Iron Fist” — which were all canceled this year at Netflix — could not come to the Disney streaming service until 2020 at the earliest.

The chances of the shows returning either on their own or as a new installment of “The Defenders” is definitely a long shot, given the time frame. And even if they did go to Disney+ as soon as possible, they would be doing so without “Jessica Jones,” which is set to air its third season on Netflix sometime in 2019. If that show is canceled, which now seems likely but is by no means a guarantee, it could not go elsewhere until 2021.


Marvel and Netflix declined to comment.

Then there is “The Punisher,” a Marvel-Netflix show that was not part of the deal that spawned “The Defenders.” “The Punisher” stars Jon Bernthal, who first played the gun-toting vigilante in “Daredevil” Season 2 before the character was spun off into his own show. It was revealed on Wednesday that the second season of “The Punisher” will debut in January. Given that “The Punisher” did not fall under the original deal, the show’s fate beyond Season 2 is unknown at this time.

Fans of the Marvel shows were shocked when Netflix began canceling them, particularly “Daredevil,” which drew strong critical praise for its third season. The streaming giant and the comic book-based entertainment studio had signed the deal to produce the four shows back in November 2013, with “Daredevil” being the first to premiere in April 2015.

The deal called for the development of four original live-action series, which would then culminate in the miniseries event “The Defenders,” which ended up airing in 2017. However, Disney announced its plans for Disney+ in 2017, with the intent being to make it a hub for everything under the Disney umbrella, which includes Marvel.

The soon-to-be-streaming giant has already lined up several original shows, including limited series centered on the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters Loki, Scarlet Witch, and Falcon and the Winter Solider. Disney+ will also be home to the live-action “Star Wars” shows “The Mandalorian” starring Pedro Pascal and a Cassian Andor series, with Diego Luna reprising his role from “Rogue One.”

Now that Hulu is expanding its relationship with Marvel could that lead to the streamer reviving live-action series like “Daredevil” and “Luke Cage” that have been canceled by Netflix?

Craig Erwich, the streamer’s senior vice president of originals, told TheWrap that Hulu remains open for business with Marvel, and that includes any title under the comic book powerhouse. “Marvel has a ton of titles we’d be interested in,” he said, when asked by TheWrap if Hulu would have interest in reviving one of those series.

“It kind of just depends on when they’re ready, [and] who, most importantly, is going to be behind these things.”

In the last year, Netflix has canceled three of its Marvel TV series — “Daredevil,” “Iron Fist” and “Luke Cage.” The second season of “The Punisher” debuted in January, leaving only the third season of “Jessica Jones” left. This also comes as Marvel TV’s big-screen counterparts, Marvel Studios, are also developing multiple TV series for Disney+ that will star characters from the films including Loki, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

Hulu is also about to 60 percent owned by Marvel’s parent company Disney, after the close of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s film and TV assets. On Monday, Hulu expanded its relationship with Marvel, signing a hefty deal for multiple animated series, including “Howard the Duck.”

The agreement will see Marvel TV produce four adult animated series — “Howard the Duck,” “M.O.D.O.K..” “Hit-Monkey” and “Tigra & Dazzler” — that will culminate in a crossover special, “The Offenders.” The four series are being written and executive produced by the likes of Patton Oswalt, Kevin Smith, Chelsea Handler, and the “Blades of Glory” directing team of Josh Gordon and Will Speck.

“We’ve had a relationship with Marvel since ‘Runaways,’ we’re getting into business on these animated shows,” he continued. “I’m sure it will lead to — you know, business gets you business — we have a good creative relationship with them. That’s where opportunities tend to arise.”

The deal with Hulu is very similar to the one Marvel TV signed with Netflix back in 2015, in which the studio was to produce four live-action series that also culminated with a team-up special. Erwich said that, though the deal may look similar, they weren’t trying to copy what Marvel and Netflix did.

“Given the lead time in animation, if we want to have a regular cadence of this programming and this kind of conversation that we think it’s going to provide, you have to just start early and commit to a bunch,” he added. “It’s hard to pull it off on a one-off basis.”