Marvel Makes Moves On ‘Daredevil: Born Again’, Taps Netflix’s ‘The Punisher’ EP As Showrunner And ‘Loki’ Duo To Direct
Spencer Baculi
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In revealing the first major changes to the series’ production direction since its initial incarnation was scrapped entirely, Marvel has officially announced their selections for two of Daredevil: Born Again‘s most important creative positions.
Daredevil rises from the ashes in Daredevil Vol. 1 #232 “God and Country” (1986), Marvel Comics. Words by Frank Miller, art by David Mazzucchelli, Max Scheele, and Joe Rosen.
As first revealed by The Hollywood Reporter in an October 27th exclusive, where once The Man Without Fear’s second solo outing had no specific showrunner – its direction instead originally being guided via committee by a team of producers whose ranks included Marvel boss Kevin Feige, Marvel Comics editor Sana Amanat, Disney’s Louis D’Esposito, Secret Invasion co-producer Chris Gary, and original series writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord – the Disney Plus series will now be overseen by television producer Dario Scardapane.
An experienced television producer, Scardapane’s most recent credits include serving as a consulting producer on Amazon’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and as an executive producer on Netflix’s The Punisher series.
The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) clears his cell block in Daredevil Season 2 Episode 9 “Seven Minutes in Heaven” (2016), Marvel Entertainment
Further, while the series’ second pass will still seek to use some of its pre-back-to-the-drawing-board footage, the directorial duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead will be stepping in to tackle Daredevil: Born Again’s remaining workload.
Originally coming up in the world of indie thrillers with such popular films as The Endless and Synchronic, Benson and Moorhead have spent recent years dabbling within the MCU, directing the Summon the Suit and The Tomb episodes of Moon Knight and the Ouroboros and The Heart of the TVA episodes of Loki‘s second season prior to their transfer to Hell’s Kitchen.
(L-R): Sophia Di Martino as Sylvie, Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Marvel Studios’ LOKI, Season 2, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Gareth Gatrell. © 2023 MARVEL.
Notably, this update to the series’ production team, and more specifically its hiring of Scardapane to serve as an explicit showrunner, comes less than three weeks after Marvel realized that their slapdash, ‘cobble-the-story-together-in-editing’ approach to television was absolutely not working.
As noted by THR’s Borys Kit at the time of Daredevil: Born Again’s ‘quality delay’, Marvel found itself in this predicament after having “eschewed the traditional TV-making model,” as “it didn’t commission pilots but instead shot entire $150 million-plus seasons of TV on the fly. It didn’t hire showrunners, but instead depended on film executives to run its series. And as Marvel does for its movies, it relied on postproduction and reshoots to fix what wasn’t working.”
Daredevil (Charlie Cox) demands answers from Madam Gao (Wai Ching Ho) in The Defenders Season 1 Episode 7 “Fish in the Jailhouse” (2017), Marvel Entertainment
“As it moves forward, Marvel is making concrete changes in how it makes TV,” the reporter then detailed. “It now has plans to hire showrunners. Gao’s postproduction work on She-Hulk helped Marvel see that it would be helpful for its shows to have a creative throughline from start to finish.”
“It also is revamping its development process,” Kit added. “Showrunners will write pilots and show bibles. The days of Marvel shooting an entire series, from She-Hulk to Secret Invasion, then looking at what’s working and what’s not, are done.”
Daredevil (Charlie Cox) has questions for Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) after being literally dropped into the scene in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1 Episode 9 “Whose Show Is This?” (2022), Marvel Entertainment via Disney Plus
As of writing, Daredevil: Born Again’s second pass does not have an official premiere date.
However, a recent filing made by Disney with the United States Copyright Office suggests that Matt Murdock and crew will land on the company’s titular streaming service sometime in 2025.
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