Marvel’s Matt Murdock, aka “Daredevil,” might be a masked vigilante who loves to fight crime in the dark, but he’s never seen chaos quite like what’s reportedly happening behind the scenes of his new TV show, Daredevil: Born Again.
From 2015 to 2018, Charlie Cox played the eponymous hero on Netflix. Now, the new Daredevil will mark Marvel Studios’ first series based on a character who made his TV debut on another streaming service, with Cox continuing in the lead role, while Vincent D’Onofrio also stays on as Wilson Fisk. According to The Hollywood Reporter, things haven’t gone according to plan for the new series—in as much as there even is one.
Per THR, Marvel Studios “quietly let go” of the show’s directors and both of its head writers last month, after Marvel boss Kevin Feige reviewed the completed footage from the season so far. (Per THR, less than half of the season had been shot before production ground to a halt in June amid the writers strike.) At this point, the trade magazine reports, the season faces “a significant creative reboot” as Marvel looks for new writers and directors. Chris Ord and Matt Corman, formerly the show’s head writers, will now serve as executive producers.
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Daredevil: Born Again had already stoked some controversy before its behind-the-scenes shake-up made news on Wednesday. In September, Steven DeKnight, who served as showrunner for Netflix’s first Daredevil season, called the show out as “an old Disney scam” designed to “reset contract terms back to first season.”
“From what I understand, I’m not going to see a penny from Daredevil: Born Again because they added the ‘Born Again’ and can claim it’s a completely different show,” DeKnight wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “You know, with the exact same two lead actors (who I love!) playing Daredevil and Fisk.”
DeKnight clarified that he remains excited to see Cox and D’Onofrio reprise their roles from the Netflix series he helped launch. Still, he added, “to claim this is a complete reboot and you don’t have to pay the original creatives is some corporate shenanigans, to say the least.”
As THR notes, the Daredevil: Born Again mess reflects a broader shift at Marvel Studios, which eschewed certain television norms as it launched its TV division—including pilots, showrunners, and full-time TV executives. At this point, Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of streaming, television, and animation, told the magazine, “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?’”
