Marvel Television looks to Refocus as 'Daredevil: Born Again' Starts from Scratch

by Darian Scalamoni

    To say that it's been tumultuous period for the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be an understatement to say the least. Ever since the commencing of the Infinity Saga, capping off with Avengers: Endgame, it seems that many (not all) projects within the established franchise didn't have the same effect; not only critically but also commercially. Many fans have clamored for the return to those feelings they felt over the span of 11 years from Iron Man all the way to the aforementioned team-up film.

    While 2023 has led to a cut-back in content with only Secret Invasion and now, Season 2 of Loki heading to streaming series, as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in theaters (The Marvels movie comes out in November), the MCU is lacking the true nucleus of what made past installments so essential. While the connective tissue of Phases I-III led to an eventual historic battle with the Mad Titan known as Thanos, the films that came before felt singular with easter eggs and eventual team-ups (and in some situations face-offs) that brought the whole vision together. 

    News that comes from an article in The Hollywood Reporter written by Borys Kit, explains in detail part of the changes and mishaps that have come along the way with Disney+ Marvel streaming shows including Moon Knight, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and of course, our headline story, Daredevil: Born Again. As for the latter project, Kit reports that head writers for Born Again, Chris Ord and Matt Corman were let go in mid-September after Feige and co. took a look at the episodes that were filmed prior to the WGA & SAG strikes that shut down Hollywood. Marvel also has let go of the directors of the series as they're on the search currently to find new directors and writers to take over a significant creative re-working of the show that will bring back Charlie Cox as the titular hero, Vincent D'Onofrio as the villainous Wilson Fisk and Jon Bernthal as The Punisher. Previous reports also brought news that Margarita Levieva and Michael Gandolfini have joined the series that will bring the blind lawyer turned superhero back into the fans eyes as the quintessential version of the character.

    Many are already aware of the avoidance of typical television practice when Marvel jumped into the Peak TV era of streaming, but in case you are not, here's a recap. When Disney+ was created, it was obvious that the inclusion of Marvel was crucial to the business model of bringing in viewers. While early success pointed to WandaVision, Loki and The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, since then, it's been a lot of uncertainty and disappointment on the TV side of things. Instead of going through typical process such as creating a pilot or a smaller idea for streaming and then building it out, the comic book production company would commit at least $150 million for live-action series to figure it out in the process of shooting. Instead of hiring showrunners with experiences working in television productions are run, they would rely on film executives to run the series leading to discontent and a number of creative challenges.

    With all of this being reported, it appears that there may be a shift coming with Daredevil: Born Again being the first example of what's to come. Brad Winterbaum, Marvel's head of television, streaming and animation has said that "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?'" And he does have a point, it's something that many people are wondering about in terms of the structure of these series where so many of them fall off later in the show. Three major examples of this in recent memory are Moon Knight, which suffered from a critical panning due to its turn to a massive action sequence in the final episode, as well as Secret Invasion and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law which featured major issues with CGI along the way. 

    The report also references how many of the problems come from an issue that seems all too familiar with the state of Hollywood today: television is a writer's medium. The tension and creative separation stems from many of the original voices brought in to create these limited series being sidelined early in the process such as Jessica Gao, who wrote She-Hulk and Jeremy Slater who created Moon Knight. 

    It appears that a lot of these original ways of thinking are being shifted into a different mentality moving forward. Marvel will now begin hiring legitimate showrunners for their series. So much of the issues that the productions face will not be "fixed in post" as many alluded to in Kit's report. The showrunners they plan to bring aboard will write pilots and show bibles to constrict from past practices such as filming an entire season of TV, going back and fixing what's wrong through expensive reshoots is officially over.