Sure, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries has people excited and Echo and Wonder Man… also exist, but it’s fair to say Daredevil: Born Again is certainly the most hyped of Marvel’s upcoming Disney Plus series. Although production on the long-awaited revival of the beloved Netflix show has been on pause ever since the strikes began, with things expected to be winding down soon, it was thought Born Again might return to plain-sailing. Unfortunately, it’s now come to light that Marvel is going back to the drawing board.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, the studio removed head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman from the project in late September, along with the directors set to helm the remainder of the episodes yet to shoot — which is most of them, as filming was only less than halfway through the 18-part run prior to the strikes. This drastic move came about after Kevin Feige and fellow execs reviewed the footage already shot over the summer and decided “the show wasn’t working.”
The big concern, THR reports, is that Marvel fears Born Again was shaping up to be too different from the Netflix series. Ord and Corman had apparently crafted a “legal procedural” focusing on Matt Murdock’s day job, with Charlie Cox’s hero not appearing in the Daredevil costume until episode 4. The intention is to retain certain scenes and perhaps even whole episodes that have been shot so far, but with fresh “serialized elements” inserted to prevent the series being so episodic in format.
The next move is to find new creatives to helm the production, although Corman and Ord will remain on as executive producers. THR also confirms Born Again already has a second season in the bag, which is somewhat encouraging, but lovers of the Defenders Saga will no doubt be concerned to hear that Disney Plus is having such trouble recapturing the magic of the Netflix original.
