After more than a decade of blockbuster dominance, some cracks have started to form at Marvel Studios. Recent films haven’t performed nearly as well, either at the box office or with fans. And I think it’s safe to say a lot of the problems began when added emphasis was given to Marvel TV, which some would also say has been less than successful. And now in a new THR report, we’re starting to see some of the fallout, and it begins with a massive creative overhaul on Daredevil: Born Again.
Marvel execs, including chief Kevin Feige, took a look at what had been shot of the ambitious 18-episode first season of Daredevil: Born Again, and decided the show was not working. This is the series that returns Charlie Cox to the role of Matt Murdock/Daredevil, a part he played to great popularity during the Marvel/Netflix era. Despite this, the decision was made last month to fire the series’ writers, Chris Ord and Matt Corman, as well as the directors for the remainder of the season. With less than half of the season already filmed, they are essentially starting from scratch with new writers and filmmakers, borrowing some elements from previously-shot content.
This leads one to wonder if we can expect to see Jon Bernthal’s return as the Punisher or not, despite him being previously announced. What’s being scrapped of Daredevil: Born Again is described as a legal procedural that “did not resemble the Netflix version, known for its action and violence [and] Cox didn’t even show up in costume until the fourth episode.”
The report chalks a lot of this up to Marvel’s untraditional way of doing TV, which is to basically do each show like one of their big-budget movies. There was no need for proper showrunners, no pilots, just shoot these massively expensive (upwards of $150M) productions on the fly and fix them in post-production with multiple reshoots, which makes the director essentially meaningless.
Basically, don’t expect Daredevil: Born Again to arrive when it was expected to in 2024.
Unfortunately, it’s taken a lot of headaches on a number of shows before Marvel figured this out. On the aforementioned She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, series writer/creator Jessica Gao was pushed to the sideline upon the hiring of director Kat Coiro. Moon Knight creator Jeremy Slater quit the Oscar Isaac-led series early on and was replaced by filmmaker Mohamed Diab.
As for Secret Invasion, one of the biggest Marvel series fails, was a chaotic mess. Series exec-producer and writer Kyle Bradstreet, who also worked on Emmy-winner Mr. Robot, was fired after more than a year. Ultimately, a power struggle for control erupted with “a good portion of the’ Invasion’ team had been replaced, with new line producers, unit production managers and assistant directors.”
To me, all of this sounds like that untouchable, unbeaten fighter who takes that first really good punch to the mouth and is now flailing to stay upright. Marvel seems to be taking the steps to right the ship, but what if it’s too late and they don’t see immediate results? Only time will tell!
