First Marvel announced that Wonder Man was cancelled, after already greenlighting a second season. Now they cancelled Daredevil: Born Again, even though Danny Rand, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage are set to be back in season 3. At first I thought they were planning on abandoning television altogether, but then reports of new Disney+ shows came out, including a spy thriller codenamed Zodiac. I started thinking maybe something else is going on.
Avengers: Secret Wars Reset
Kevin Feige has stated over and over that after Secret Wars the MCU will be reset. He hasn't really elaborated on how it will be reset, but it's confirmed that he will be bringing the X-Men and mutants in general to the universe. As of right now, they've been sprinkling in mutants here and there, without actually explaining why they suddenly exist now, when they didn't before Endgame. An X-Men movie is scheduled for 2028 and is the first movie released in this reset universe.
Is the Only Difference Going to be Mutants?
I started thinking, what if mutants aren't the only change? Marvel has made a lot of interesting choices over the years, like killing Foggy and keeping the Osborns out entirely. What if the reset is their way to change these decisions? Come 2028, there could be Wolverine fighting side by side with Steve Rogers in World War 2 and Ned could be Hobgoblin. More importantly, a reset universe presents the ability to resurrect characters, like the Mandarin, Tony Stark, Maria Hill, and possibly even Foggy Nelson. If there is going to be a new universe, then the old one definitively ending would have to happen. That ending is Secret Wars, and having an MCU show continue on after it wouldn't make much sense.
Daredevil: Born Again
Season 3 of Daredevil: Born Again is going to be its last. It comes out before Secret Wars and will bring back Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Danny Rand. The show began with Foggy Nelson being killed by Bullseye. In the comics, Foggy also appeared to die during Ed Brubaker's run, but it was later revealed his death was faked and he'd been put in witness protection. For them to fake Foggy's death in the MCU would feel cheap, but to resurrect him in the reset universe, that could pay homage to the comic.
A Unified Universe
I don't think Marvel is giving up on TV. I think they're clearing the board. Wonder Man and Daredevil: Born Again both live in the current MCU, and if Secret Wars resets everything, any show that keeps going past it becomes a continuity headache. Ending them now lets Marvel wrap things up on their terms instead of explaining later why Matt Murdock suddenly has a different history. Zodiac getting greenlit tells me the TV side isn't dead. It's just waiting for the new universe. If I'm right, the X-Men movie in 2028 is where we will start to see how much has actually changed, though it will probably be years before we understand all of the changes.
