Brad Winderbaum, the head of Marvel Television, revealed why the studio chose to drastically overhaul “Daredevil: Born Again” after the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA labor strikes.
When the show arrives on Disney+ in March, it will have been nearly seven years since its parent series, Netflix’s “Daredevil,” was canceled in November 2018. It will also have been three years since Marvel announced “Daredevil: Born Again” — a period of time that was extended by the studio’s decision in September 2023 to part ways with original “Born Again” head writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord, hire “The Punisher” writer Dario Scardapane to creatively overhaul it and bring on “Loki” Season 2 directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
According to returning Matt Murdock actor Charlie Cox, the original iteration of “Born Again” suffered from an identity crisis. “It was a little bit confusing,” Cox told Entertainment Weekly about the series’ initially unclear connections to its Netflix predecessor. “It was too, ‘Is it the show or is it not the show?’”
Also speaking with EW, Winderbaum revealed that Marvel was initially hesitant to bog “Daredevil: Born Again” down with too much backstory tied to the original Netflix series. “It led to a feeling of, maybe we don’t have to define it. Maybe we can play it loose,” he recalled. Production on “Daredevil: Born Again” was halted three months into filming in June 2023 when the writers’ strike began, however, and the months-long stoppage that followed gave Marvel a chance to really look at what had been shot up to that point.
When the studio did so, it realized that it needed to decide once and for all whether or not it was going to directly connect “Born Again” to Netflix’s “Daredevil.” “It really wasn’t clear until we watched the series after the strike that we had to choose,” Winderbaum explained.
Rather than run away from the show’s history, Marvel chose to lean into it. That decision resulted in not only the project’s many behind-the-scenes changes but also the return of other original “Daredevil” stars like Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Ayelet Zurer and Wilson Bethel. Now, viewers will have no question when they watch “Daredevil: Born Again” about its relationship to its Netflix parent show.
“Daredevil: Born Again” Season 1 premieres March 4 on Disney+.
