Daredevil: Born Again In Big Trouble, Disney Abandoning?
The ongoing Multiverse Saga of the MCU is a bit of a mess at the moment, and now it appears it has hit another significant snag. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the anticipated Daredevil: Born Again is going to have to pause production again as the series gets a serious creative overhaul. Apparently, the filmed episodes that Kevin Feige and other Marvel execs have seen were disappointing enough that they let go of the head writers, released the directors for the remaining episodes, and are looking to essentially overhaul the series as a whole — yikes.
Daredevil: Born Again was set to bring back Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock as the blind lawyer turned street-fighting superhero, who officially re-entered the MCU fold after appearances in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk. Amongst the non-canon Netflix Marvel shows, Cox’s Daredevil was one of the most consistently well-reviewed and loved by fans, so it’s no surprise they brought the character back. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like his show is living up to the precedent set by his Netflix origins.
A report that Disney fired the head writers and directors for Daredevil: Born Again doesn’t bode well for the upcoming series.
It does make sense that Marvel would want Daredevil: Born Again to be an acclaimed hit after the MCU has had a string of disappointments in recent years. Fans didn’t love the Disney+ series Secret Invasion, which squandered the potential of having Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury as the lead.
While everyone loved Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it was largely separated from the ongoing Kang storyline, and Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, which had Kang as the main villain, did not go over well with audiences either.
While it’s not a total loss of time, as Marvel intends to keep some scenes and elements from the current version of Daredevil: Born Again, it does come at a bad time for the studio.
In short, the MCU needs a win right now, and it seems like the studio execs decided the current version of Daredevil: Born Again wasn’t that win. According to The Hollywood Reporter’s report on the show, the version that head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman created was more of a legal procedural that didn’t match the intensity and violence that made the Netflix version a success. In fact, Cox’s Daredevil didn’t even don his costume until the fourth episode of the show.
While it’s not a total loss of time, as Marvel intends to keep some scenes and elements from the current version of Daredevil: Born Again, it does come at a bad time for the studio. Corman and Ord will still stay on as executive producers, so there will also still be some creative continuity as the show gets a fresh coat of paint.
Daredevil: Born Again has already been pushed back to 2024, and with these alleged changes, it would not be surprising if it was delayed again.
While the WGA strike did halt production on the show originally, it may have been a blessing in disguise as the execs were able to review the previously filmed material and make this call before too much of the show was made.
Hopefully, they are making the right call, and the new version of Daredevil: Born Again will be better than what they already had in the pipeline. For now, we’ll have to wait and see. Fans can at least look forward to seeing Cox’s Matt Murdock in the upcoming series Echo, which stars Alaqua Cox as the titular character introduced in Hawkeye.
