Fans were undoubtedly surprised by Netflix’s decision to cancel Daredevil last week. But as it turns out, some of the show’s writers were just as blindsided as everyone else. Sam Ernst, who has writing credits on two episodes of the latest season, took to Twitter to express his own shock over the series’ fate. Now, in an interview with io9, Tamara Becher-Wilkinson has shared her own thoughts on the recent news.
Although she was a new addition to Daredevil’s writing staff, Becher-Wilkinson penned one of season 3’s strongest episodes. She wrote “Karen,” which was primarily a flashback episode centering on Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page. The episode memorably shed new light on the character’s dark past hinted at in previous seasons. Before this, Becher-Wilkinson was a writer on Iron Fist, and she admitted that that series’ cancellation didn’t faze her because of its lukewarm history with critics. However, Daredevil is a different story.
“If I was a betting woman, you know, my guess is that it’s the end of the Marvel universe on Netflix,” said Becher-Wilkinson. She also explained in detail how she first learned that the series wouldn’t be renewed. “[Showrunner Erik Oleson] got a call asking him to go down to see the Marvel executives, and I jokingly went ‘Ooooooooh,’ like a third grader does when someone gets called to a principal’s office,” she said. “Then, he waited for everybody to gather back in the writers’ room and he said, ‘Netflix has decided not to move forward with season four.’ And that’s all I remember, you know. I kind of missed the details because I was, like, so surprised.”
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In a tweet posted nearly two weeks prior to Daredevil’s cancellation, Oleson announced that he had pitched a fourth season to Netflix executives. Becher-Wilkinson was one of the writers slated to return to the series. In fact, she had even begun developing a work schedule for the next season. Unfortunately, it appears the streaming service wasn’t keen on their ideas. “The reviews [for season 3] were so overwhelmingly positive that I thought there was no way they would cancel it,” Becher-Wilkinson continued. “I don’t know how well it does on Netflix or anything like that…[but] it was surprising to me they would cancel something that was so well received. I thought it was too big to fail.”
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