In the wake of a blockbuster report that revealed not only was Marvel firing all writers and directors from Daredevil: Born Again and essentially starting over, they were also rethinking their entire approach to TV. Less miniseries and more ongoing shows. Actual “creative throughlines” from start to finish which uh, apparently were not necessary before.
We may have dodged a bullet with the return of Daredevil, if these reports are accurate. Initially, the plan for Daredevil did actually sound kind of interesting. It would be a bit more grounded with Matt practicing law and taking actual cases, while Kingpin would deal with the problems of ruling as the city’s mayor. But then the two would get “sucked back into their old lives” as situations arose.
A Daredevil legal drama sounds like it could have potential (I mean, people like legal dramas for a reason, and you could still throw some bloody fights in there), but reportedly Daredevil didn’t even wear his costume until episode 4 of the series, which seems…odd.
But past that, many film insiders have been teasing the reason for that, or just saying it outright. While this may no longer be happening, you may still consider it a spoiler if they still go in that direction. Hopefully they don’t.
The reason Matt hangs up his Daredevil shoot is because Foggy and Karen are shot and either killed or seriously injured…offscreen…as the show begins. These would be his co-leads played by Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll. It was always strange that the two of them weren’t returning for the series, and other supporting roles like Fisk’s love interest Vanessa were recast.
Needless to say this would have been a horrible opening to kill two of the main characters from the beloved original series, offscreen, no less, as a way to get Matt to set down crimefighting for a while. Hopefully this draft of the script gets thrown in the trash and they find a way to bring back Karen and Foggy, which they obviously should.
The conspiracy around all this is that Disney has been trying to pull “a Disney” here, a trick where they rename a show to reset pay rates to season 1 levels. They’ve done this with kids shows in the past, but by making Daredevil “Born Again” instead of season 4, and by not bringing back old cast members who may demand higher rates, the whole thing may have been an elaborate cost-saving exercise.
Wilson Fisk, Vincent D’Onofrio, has shrugged off the drama, saying that things like this happen and he would have been more disappointed if they’d made something bad. Supposedly Daredevil: Born Again will run for two 9 episode seasons, and that plan hasn’t changed. It would be a departure from every other Marvel series however, as Loki is the only live-action one to get an official season 2 yet.
But going back to the drawing board at this point will no doubt create a lot of delays and we have no idea when this series will surface. The general plan seems like it’s about making TV shows that actually feel like TV shows, rather than miniseries set-ups for movies or crossovers. So we’ll see how that goes.
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