Disney’s follow-up to the original Netflix series is torn between two creative visions.
When Marvel Studios announced in 2022 it was going to revive Netflix’s abruptly canceled Daredevil series, fans were eager to see more of the Man Without Fear in his own show again after he made a brief cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home. As one of those fans, I was more hesitant. My appetite was there, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Disney was going to botch the execution of this new show without the original creative team at the helm. My fears were largely proven correct.
I reviewed the two-episode premiere with optimistic hope for how the rest of the television series would turn out. Despite last night’s entertaining season finale, the overall show doesn’t deliver a satisfying conclusion. In fact, Daredevil: Born Again is rather disappointing. It has some promising moments and even ends on a tantalizing cliffhanger that lays the groundwork for the second season, but you have to suffer through six (mostly) boring episodes before the story picks up again. There’s a specific reason why that is, and it lies in the show’s chaotic production.
The filming of Born Again was marked by numerous problems. In 2023, filming was halted because of the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes. The pause gave Marvel boss Kevin Feige and others time to review the footage, and they concluded the show wasn’t working. It was more of a legal procedural, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) didn’t suit up as Daredevil until the fourth episode of the planned 18-episode series. (The episode count was later reduced to nine.) And so, the original concept was scrapped in favor of a new vision and a new team was brought on to replace the old.
At the time, I thought this meant a complete retooling of the series. Marvel instead kept some of the scenes and episodes that were already filmed, with the newly hired creatives working within the confines of the initial plan. Because of these two conflicting visions, watching Born Again was a jarring experience.
The first episode, directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson and written by Dario Scardapane (i.e., the new guys), set the tone decently by starting off with a fight scene that leads to a key character’s death in the first 15 minutes. I’d argue the death should have happened at the end of the first episode, so there’s some time to settle in before things go awry. Nonetheless, it grabs your attention and drives Matt to retire his superhero persona.
Then, the next six episodes meander through different subplots (a court trial involving a vigilante named White Tiger, a serial killer named Muse who makes murals out of his victims’ blood, etc.) without ever really addressing what that character’s death means for Matt. He’s clearly distraught and is discouraged from donning the mask again, but the consequences of said death could have been explored more in depth beyond mere passing references. The death (or more accurately, the reason behind it) does come into play later on, at least.
It’s in the final two episodes that Born Again finally gains enough momentum to spark interest again. Matt knows Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) is up to no good in his new job as mayor of New York City. Fisk tightens his grip on the city by granting greater authority to his anti-vigilante task force composed of morally corrupt cops. The psychopathic assassin Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) escapes prison, and the cold-blooded vigilante Frank Castle/Punisher (Jon Bernthal) doles out ruthless justice as he sees fit.
Moorhead and Benson show off their directing chops here, with comic book-inspired color schemes and gorgeous camera shots. The writing is less impressive, but still better than the majority of the season’s runtime. Scardapane does a good enough job that one can get reinvested. The problem is the finale feels more like a setup for the next season than a conclusive end to Daredevil’s journey.
The original series didn’t have the same problem. Daredevil is a tour de force. All 39 episodes and every scene pack a punch, diving deeper into the hero and Hell’s Kitchen. Even the side characters are an integral component to Daredevil’s journey in his three-season run. Each detail is an immaculate work of art, from the cinematography and writing to the fight choreography and Christian themes. It’s a shame Born Again can’t reach the same creative heights.
Born Again, while not as bad as I thought it was going to be, is still a far cry from the Netflix original (which now streams on Disney+). It may try to posture as a faithful continuation of the story, but that is undermined by two incompatible visions. It would have been better if the old concept was scrapped to let the new one breathe. Or better yet, Marvel could have made the fourth and fifth seasons as originally intended before the show was prematurely canceled in 2018. If the revival isn’t great, I don’t want it. Maybe Born Again should have stayed dead.