Looks like Marvel’s hitting the reset button on their expansive, bloated cinematic universe. A report from The Hollywood Reporter suggests that the studio is in the process of completely overhauling Daredevil: Born Again, their ambitious sequel project to the massively successful Daredevil series originally launched on Netflix. According to THR, the series is being scrapped and done again from scratch, letting head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman go, with plans to restructure the entire series from scratch, leaning more towards traditional, episodic TV.
The realization apparently came after the eighteen episode series’ production was halted by the still-ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, after which footage was reviewed and it was decided by the big bosses that things just weren’t working for the reboot, set to bring back Charlie Cox as Daredevil, alongside Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, the latter of whom had already appeared in one Disney+ series: Hawkeye. Apparently, the version of the show that Ord and Corman — who were only ever head writers, not showrunners — had created leaned far more on the procedural drama of things, becoming more like a superhero Law and Order than the Netflix series, known for its significant violence, had ever been.
According to THR, the studio plans not to scrap the show entirely, but rework it, with Ord and Corman now serving as executive producers rather than writers as the show is completely rewritten. Reportedly, Marvel wants to move away from the limited series format that had defined their Disney+ shows up to this point, with the success of projects like Loki, which just premiered its second season, proving that serialized television works far better as a format than truncated, eight-episode seasons, which had previously been described as “eight hour movies” — a fundamental misunderstanding of the format of TV, if you ask us.
A Return to Traditional Television
The overhaul of Born Again also reveals another key change in Marvel‘s TV structure: a new plan to hire showrunners. Previously, only head writers had been a major part of the production team for shows like Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight, but it seems like Disney and Marvel are moving back towards more traditional structures of television, finally giving their characters (and writers) time to breathe, as opposed to each being a small, almost insignificant piece of “setup for a big crossover event,” as THR puts it.
What this means for Born Again’s future, no one knows, but fans can currently stream all three seasons of the original Daredevil series on Netflix.
via Collider