Netflix and Marvel TV seem to be at a crossroads right now. As Season 3 of “Daredevil” hit the streaming service last week, the return of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen also came at a time when Netflix canceled two of its Marvel series, “Luke Cage” and “Iron Fist.” Speculation was rampant as to why the series were given the boot. Was it because of creative differences? Perhaps this is all because Disney wants to move the characters over to its own streaming service? Well, a new report that was just published points the finger at a much more logical reason — lack of interest.
The streaming service is notorious for keeping its viewership totals private, as Netflix doesn’t want to spill the beans on what people are watching and not watching. They just like to use that data for its own algorithms and decision-making. However, recently, Netflix did release some numbers for its summer of rom-coms. And some of those numbers were related to the stars of those films seeing significant leaps in followers on Instagram after the films’ premiered on the streaming service.
READ MORE: Netflix Says 80 Million Subscribers Watched Its Original Rom-Com Lineup Over The Summer
All that leads to a new report from a “consumer-insights” company called Crimson Hexagon (via Business Insider) that points to some more social media stats that could highlight just how Netflix makes its decisions regarding renewing or canceling a series.
The report states that the difference in social media chatter on Twitter and Instagram declined dramatically between seasons 1 and 2 of both “Luke Cage” and “Iron Fist.” The first series that was canceled, “Iron Fist,” saw the number of social media posts regarding the series drop from 120,000 to 20,000 in the months of the season’s hitting Netflix. “Luke Cage” fell even more drastically with 300,000 posts on Twitter and Instagram in September 2016 (first season premiere) and only 50,000 in June 2018 (second season premiere).
Now, you may be wondering how that might affect the rest of the Marvel TV shows on the streaming service. Taking “The Punisher” and “The Defenders” out of the discussion, considering those shows only have one season of stats, we can see that “Daredevil” and “Jessica Jones” both are trending downward, however at a less steep decline.
Season 1 of “Jessica Jones” accumulated about 300,000 posts on social media during its premiere month, but that number dropped to just under 150,000 when Season 2 hit Netflix this year. Still dramatic, but far-less worrisome.
The same with “Daredevil,” which saw 275,000 posts during its first month of Season 1’s release. That number dropped only slightly to just over 200,000 during the premiere month of Season 2. And currently, Season 3 has 75,000 posts on social media, with days of October left to accumulate more.
Obviously, these shows are experiencing a lack of interest, which is inherent with all franchises regardless of the brand. However, those fans that are shocked at Netflix’s decision-making should take note. Just because you assume the Marvel TV shows are doing gangbuster viewership numbers doesn’t mean they actually are.
Currently, Netflix is finishing up Season 2 of “The Punisher” and has renewed “Jessica Jones” for Season 3. There’s no word on Season 4 of “Daredevil,” but people involved seem to think it’ll happen.
But at this point, the only people that know for sure are those execs at Netflix.
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