Daredevil: Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane is making sure fans know just how bloody the new show will be out of fear they could misjudge its new Disney Plus label.
The Netflix/Marvel hit gained an abundance of love and appreciation from fans for its grittier approach to superhero shenanigans. After all, fighting corruption and taking down vicious villains is much dirtier work than the shiny, energy-blasting aesthetic of the mainstream Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Somehow, though, and unfortunately, the conversation about what it was that made Marvel’s Netflix shows a richer experience for viewers has been watered down to how much blood they’re shown in any given scene. So far, the trailers for Daredevil: Born Again have been intentional in their inclusion of gruesome fight sequences, just to make it extremely clear to Netflix fans that the new version of the show will maintain the edge of the original.
In an interview with Empire Magazine, Scardapane went as far as to tease one particular scene from the upcoming series that will go “way past anything Netflix ever did.” His star, Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays threatening crime boss and Daredevil’s ultimate nemesis Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, also made a point to emphasize just how much further the Disney Plus show goes “in the darkness, the action, the nastiness.” But just what are they trying to prove here?
Don’t get me wrong ⏤ I agree, to a degree, that the unsanitized violence of the original Daredevil is part of its appeal, but only in the way it contributes to the show’s bigger themes. Daredevil was always about coming to terms with the darker aspects of our lives, our pasts, our identities — even the institutions we’ve always deemed as guiding lights of moral and virtue, like Matt Murdock’s esteemed Catholic Church, the judicial system, or journalism. Similarly, Fisk always represented the very bottomless depths the human spirit can reach when left unchecked. Matt, on the other hand, existed as the counterpoint to the villain, but also as proof that the line between good and bad is tenuous and precarious if we’re not permanently vigilant.
It feels terribly condescending that the creators of Daredevil: Born Again have reduced all this nuance to fans simply being thirsty for bloody fight sequences and excited by sheer violence as it exists outside any wider context. And while some might not yet realize that what they loved about the violence in Daredevil were the higher concepts that framed it, they can still be left confused and unsatisfied if Born Again chooses to deliver on one aspect but not the other. And it’s sounding more and more likely that that’s exactly what will happen.
If all the fighting and blood splatter doesn’t actually mean anything, I promise you it will come across just as empty as all the clean-cut family-friendly projects Marvel has delivered in the Disney era. Still, as with any Daredevil fan, I am obviously not personally invested in being right about the show not matching the standards of the original, so let’s hope Scardapane and co. prove me wrong when Born Again hits streaming March 4, 2025.
Published: Feb 10, 2025 06:49 pm