Things haven’t been easy for the Man Without Fear in the MCU. Daredevil is widely considered the very best of the Netflix MCU shows and there were literal tears of joy from fans when Charlie Cox made an unexpected (but brief) cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Since then he’s played a guest role in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, but Matt Murdock stans have been craving the real deal. This will come in the shape of Daredevil: Born Again, a humungous 18-episode epic featuring Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher.
Given that there have already been three well-received seasons of a live-action Daredevil TV show you’d think getting this made wouldn’t be so hard. Well, think again. Secret Invasion producer Chris Gary was put in charge of the show, with Matt Corman and Chris Ord hired to write and exec produce.
The shoot began, six episodes were shot, and then Disney and Marvel Studios reviewed them. Suddenly the brakes were slammed on the show. Corman and Ord were promptly fired and all the directors who’d worked on the show were replaced. All we know is that Marvel Studios execs thought the show “wasn’t working”, but given that these are the people who signed off on Secret Invasion, what they saw must have been truly dreadful.
Dario Scardapane, who wrote for Netflix’s The Punisher, was hired as the new showrunner, with Moon Knight‘s Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead tapped to direct. Much of what was already shot was tossed out (at enormous expense), but some existing footage will be reworked into the new show.
The shoot finally wrapped on Apr. 5 2024 and on May 14 Marvel Studios showcased the first footage. Sadly this has not leaked, though we do have an image of the show’s logo:
Those in attendance described the footage as featuring “bloody action sequences”, with Matt saying that the “whole system is against you, it’s often David & Goliath”. He’s also asked “what kind of lawyer are you?” and replies “a really good one” as he dons a broken pair of glasses.
Daredevil: Born Again now has a rough release date of March 2025, meaning we have at least a 10-month wait to see the show. Though Echo released its episodes all at once we expect Born Again to release weekly, meaning that we’ll be getting new Daredevil action once a week for a large portion of 2025. Here’s hoping that Marvel Studios can finally stick the landing on one of the most beloved heroes.