Marvel Fires Daredevil: Born Again Team & Orders Redo After Disastrous Results
After a successful three-season run for "Daredevil" on Netflix and the character entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "She-Hulk," it's safe to say expectations are sky high for the upcoming "Daredevil: Born Again," which sees Charlie Cox return as the Man Without Fear. To add to the hype, the 1st season is expected to have 18 episodes, a vast upgrade over the typical Marvel six-episode season, and it already has Season 2 in the pipeline. Now, a new report from The Hollywood Reporter indicates Marvel wants to change up its strategy to save the new "Daredevil" series from being a potential train wreck.
Like many other TV shows, "Daredevil: Born Again" had its production suspended in June following the Writers Guild of America strike. It may have been fortuitous for this particular project, as it gave Marvel's top brass a chance to review the footage shot so far, consisting of less than half of the planned 18 episodes. But it was enough for executives to make a decision, resulting in head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman, along with the show's directors, getting fired in September. Marvel must now search for new writers and directors to right the ship.
Ord and Corman will remain on "Daredevil: Born Again" as executive producers, and it sounds as though some of their scenes could still be used in the finished product. Primarily, it sounds like a total overhaul. The report goes on to state how the original iteration resembled more of a legal drama rather than a violent action thriller like the popular Netflix show. Cox didn't even don the Daredevil costume until the 4th episode, something that may not have sat right with fans.
Marvel TV needs to be more like ... TV
With many of Marvel's previous Disney+ series, like "Moon Knight" and "Ms. Marvel," the shows really functioned as many people's first introductions to the characters. However, Daredevil is a known entity. He had his own movie starring Ben Affleck years ago and then a far more successful rebranding on Netflix. There's a lot more attached to the name, so a subpar revival series, regardless of how much it's connected to the events of the Netflix show, would've been far more disastrous than the lukewarm reception to "Secret Invasion," especially given the idea Marvel is confident in the show's success since it's already agreed to let it run for two seasons.
That's yet another aspect "Daredevil: Born Again" is looking to upend. Many Disney+ Marvel shows are miniseries designed to lead up to a movie cross, like "WandaVision" setting up the events of "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." But television deserves to be so much more than that. TV is a writer-driven medium that should be able to tell a complete story on its own rather than lead to something else for the sake of corporate synergy. This can be seen in Marvel shows not having showrunners to ensure an overarching creative vision throughout a given season. Despite showrunners guiding TV shows for decades, they are something Marvel is apparently just realizing is necessary — Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming, television, and animation at Marvel, stated, "['Showrunner' is] a term we've not only grown comfortable with but also learned to embrace."
Marvel's focus on limited series leading to event films can make the shows feel more like homework. But shows like "Daredevil: Born Again" deserve to stand on their own, and hopefully, this shake-up leads to a better final product.