Who's to blame for the cancellation of "Daredevil" and other Marvel series on Netflix?

According to Amy Rutberg, who plays Marci Stahl in "Daredevil" and "The Defenders," it wasn't Marvel.

While folks were theorizing that Disney-owned Marvel was pulling its properties off Netflix before Disney launches its own streaming service, Rutberg told Inverse that the cancellation caught people at Marvel completely off-guard.

"My contacts at Marvel were very surprised," Rutberg said. "Any of the rumors that it was a Marvel decision are wrong, I think it was purely a Netflix decision. That comes from personal conversations with people high up at Marvel. They were surprised.”

She said that filming for Season 4 was expected to begin as early as February 2019: "It’s a little unusual to be that far ahead in the planning and cancel the show, which makes me think Netflix was laboring over whether or not to cancel it. My guess was it was not an easy decision."

According to Rutberg, cast and crew all assumed "Daredevil" would run for at least five seasons.

"It would have been really interesting to see which villains they would have come up with in Season 4,” she says. “I don't think it would have been something big with Wilson Fisk. That was played out. Maybe in Season 5.."

As previously reported, Rutberg confirms that Marvel’s contract with Netflix means none of the Defenders characters can appear in non-Netflix content for a set amount of time.

"There is this very real contract with Netflix," she explained. "I had heard 18 months, maybe it’s 2 years. I suppose it’s possible that Marvel could buy them out, but I have not heard so much as a whisper."

In the meantime enjoy Season 2 of "The Punisher," which premieres in January. Whether it and the as-yet-uncancelled "Jessica Jones" will survive the ax? Outlook not so good.

[Via Inverse, The Playlist]