We all knew what Marvel had originally planned for Daredevil once they got their hands back on the character. The well-received Netflix seasons were to be a distant memory. She-Hulk gave a terrifying glimpse into their plans. Then, thankfully, some common sense returned to Marvel.
After surveying the wreckage of Phase 4 and the stuttering start to Phase 5, they seemed to start to learn what it actually was that fans wanted, and what had made the previous phases so successful.
There will be no second season of She-Hulk. Further adventures of The Marvels have been quietly parked. Blade isn’t being allowed to leave the departure lounge until oversight is happy with it. Changes have been made at the studio. Executives have been shown the door. Production has been slowed down to increase quality control.
One thing caught up in this reset was Daredevil: Born Again. After it had already started production, it was halted. It was then completely re-tooled. Gone was the semi-“All New” adventure with just tenuous links back to the Netflix show.
In its place is a show with most of the cast from the Netflix series returning, and it very much feeling like the fourth season fans were denied.
Now Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s Head of Marvel Streaming, Television and Animation, has made a pretty big claim. It seems that they were listening to the rapturous response fans gave to something else a little bit retro-Marvel lately. X-Men ’97. Linking that to Daredevil, he had this to say:
“It’s similar in some ways to X-Men ’97 because it’s reviving something that the fans love, but it’s taking it in a new direction… These characters have matured. The universe is different than it was. Things have changed. Society has changed. Matt [Murdock] and Wilson [Fisk] have changed, and their characters are going to collide in ways we’ve never seen before. It’s no longer enough to try to murder each other. There’s a whole game of politics at play.”
Lead actor Charlie Cox has also spoken about the re-tooling:
“Marvel had been incredibly open-minded and willing to correct course, and incredibly supportive. Early on, we were trying something that was a bit different, and very quickly they were able to identify that wasn’t maybe working as well as it could’ve done. Where we are now, I think I can speak for both of us that we feel very happy.”
Might be time to re-visit the Netflix show, particularly the third season.