Netflix clutched our gentle hearts in its hand during 2018. Take a moment to think about the shows canceled and those which got announcements for their pending end. It was too much for our hearts to bear and going into 2019, we are curious to see what kind of year Netflix will have. It’s hard to believe that the streaming service would make such drastic decisions but will it actually affect them in the long run?
Well, let’s break it down here for a moment. Despite the cancellations and shows ending in the new year, Netflix had a pretty solid 2018. They won Emmys, their first Oscar (Icarus), and even snagged awards at the Venice Film Festival (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Roma). Not to mention, television gurus Shonda Rhimes and Ryan Murphy officially switched over to the streaming service. But despite all these amazing additions and expansion efforts, will Netflix have an off year in 2019?
It’s hard to think that it possibly ever could considering season 3 of The Crown and Stranger Things are set to come out in 2019. But let’s take a look at the shows that are endings and the shows that were canceled to truly gauge what the future of Netflix looks like.
Shows ending/ended
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- A Series of Unfortunate Events
- Easy
- Orange Is The New Black
- House of Cards
Shows canceled
- Marvel’s Daredevil
- Marvel’s Iron Fist
- Marvel’s Luke Cage
- American Vandal
- All About the Washingtons
- The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale
- The Break With Michelle Wolf
- Seven Seconds
- Everything Sucks
- Disjointed
*If we missed any, please do tell us!
The biggest shocker came with the abrupt cancellation of the Marvel shows. Daredevil gave us its best season yet, and even Iron Fist stepped up its game for its second season. What did not startle us about this decision is that Disney is launching its own streaming service (Disney+) in 2019, so perhaps they intend on taking on the shows, or at least the characters for new shows, to their platform. But spoiler alert: Disney technically cannot do anything new with the shows (even if they wanted to) for two years after the cancellation date due to contract agreements, etc.
BREAKING: Daredevil has been canceled by Netflix after three seasons and will not return for Season 4.https://t.co/OA8Az58UFK pic.twitter.com/XuYSLv0B7H
— IGN (@IGN) November 30, 2018
But what about the Marvel shows that have not been canceled yet? Marvel’s Jessica Jones is slated to release its third season later this year and Marvel’s Punisher on January 18th (just a few days from now!). There has been no official cancellation as of yet, but honestly, most of us are expecting the news soon after the shows are released. It simply does not make sense to keep them and not the others.
With Disney releasing its own streaming service this year, it’s interesting to think about how Netflix will be affected. Currently, Netflix hosts many Disney-owned movies and shows ranging from Pixar to Lucasfilm. Naturally, these all will leave once Disney’s service has officially begun. Just think about that for a second. Netflix not only canceled shows, but they’re going to lose a significant chunk of their content.
However, Netflix has created so much original content that it may not feel the absence at all. But then again, with shows like Orange Is The New Black ending, we anticipate that some sort of financial dip is most likely to take place. It has to, right? We’d be interested in finding out just how much the streaming service will be impacted financially because while it’s lost so many shows and has to compete with Disney–it’s still Netflix.
In fact, Netflix is raising its prices (again), as we found out this week. Netflix simply needs to raise funds to produce new original content to compete with Amazon, Hulu, and Disney. Prices will go up to $13/month for the main streaming plan.
But at the end of the day, that’s still an amazing value for not only Netflix’s original content but their back catalog. They’ve still got so many amazing shows on their slate, with many more to come courtesy of Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes. And if you’ve seen any of their shows, you know that they only create quality content. Plus don’t forget that Netflix signed a production deal with the Obamas to produce films and shows.
So, what’s our final verdict for the future of Netflix this year? They are going to be okay. Losing the Disney content will hurt, but in the long run it should help Netflix stand stronger on its own original content, as it did for so long.
