Daredevil: Born Again team sacked in Marvel TV overhaul
Disney+/NetflixThe creative team behind Daredevil: Born Again has been “quietly let go” as part of a major overhaul of Marvel’s TV strategy for the MCU.
Born Again will see the full-on return of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, who first debuted in the acclaimed Netflix series before making cameo appearances in Spider-Man: No Way Home and the She-Hulk series.
It’s one of several upcoming MCU shows planned for Disney Plus, set to follow the likes of Echo (in itself connected to Daredevil via Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin), Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, and Ironheart, the solo series following Riri Williams after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
However, after the dismal reception to Secret Invasion and lower-than-expected viewership, Marvel is rethinking its approach to television – and Daredevil is a big part of those plans.
Daredevil: Born Again team fired for “creative reboot”
Head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman were “quietly let go” in September after Kevin Feige and other Marvel executives decided the “show wasn’t working”, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
Born Again paused production due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes, at which point Feige and co. reviewed what had been shot so far. According to the outlet’s sources, Corman and Ord “crafted a legal procedural that did not resemble the Netflix version, known for its action and violence. Cox didn’t even show up in costume until the fourth episode. Marvel, after greenlighting the concept, found itself needing to rethink the original intention of the show.”
This echoes fans’ concerns after the Man Without Fear appeared in She-Hulk with heightened comedy and CGI acrobatics, as well as Kingpin’s surprise role in Hawkeye, with some worrying the beloved characters would be “Disney-fied” by the MCU after their hard-edged portrayals on Netflix.
While some scenes and episodes will remain, “other serialized elements will be injected,” and Corman and Ord will be executive producers on the series rather than its overarching creatives.
This appears to be the first step of a bigger revamp for Marvel’s Disney Plus output, which has largely defied the traditional trajectory of TV production with gargantuan budgets, no pilots, no showrunners, and a reliance on post-production and reshoots.
Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of streaming, television and animation, told the outlet: “We’re trying to marry the Marvel culture with the traditional television culture… it comes down to, ‘How can we tell stories in television that honor what’s so great about the source material?'”
Instead of executives overseeing shows, Marvel is now said to be targeting showrunners to give projects a “creative throughline” rather than just servicing the larger franchise. Not only will they write pilots, but they’ll also put together “show bibles,” i.e. a document that completely encompasses its goals, story, themes, and more.
In Winderbaum’s eyes, MCU shows should be attractive “beyond the fact that it ties into [other projects] or if they are going to be in a movie or if it is setting up an Avengers film.”
While many of the plans may already be scrapped, you can check out what we know about Daredevil: Born Again here.