The creative team behind the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again is gearing up for the release of season two next month. In an admission that may build some credibility with fans, showrunner Dario Scardapane said he feels that season one came out as a “cobbled-together Frankenstein.”
Describing the first season as a collection of incompatible ideas that lacked a singular vision suggests season two will be a fresh start. GamesRadar+ reports that in Scardapane’s interview with SFX magazine, he said season two will be able to “really let it rip in a way we might not have been able to last season.”
Setting the Stakes
Daredevil: Born Again was an important project for Disney+ as it was the revival of the popular MCU series that ran on Netflix between 2015 and 2018. It featured the return of Charlie Cox as the blind superhero and much of the original cast, though none of the showrunners from the Netflix series were involved.
A screenshot from the Daredevil TV series – Disney+
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Scardapane was brought after previous showrunners and head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman had already shot nearly half of the first season before the 2023 writers’ strike. Marvel executives, including Kevin Feige, reportedly felt that the show wasn’t working. At the time, The Hollywood Reporter said they were let go before Marvel had found a replacement.
Moving the series to a new production company and bringing in an entirely new creative team may have compounded the risk of Daredevil becoming a Frankenstein patchwork of ideas.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – APRIL 11: Kevin Feige, President, Marvel Studios speaks onstage during the Walt Disney Studios presentation at Cinemacon in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 11, 2024. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
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“The task of season one was a really sick kind of fun. They’d gone in a direction where it was a different kind of show,” Scardapane said of Ord and Corman’s work. “It was much more of a procedural, much more focused on the courtroom.” It became Scardapane’s task to salvage as much of the original footage as possible, while grafting in new material that took Daredevil in a different direction.
What Scardapane Changed
One of the major changes Scardapane made was filming the controversial opening which saw the death of Foggy Nelson. Originally, the inciting incident was planned to happen entirely off-screen. Some fans felt that killing off Matt Murdock’s beloved sidekick was a misstep, which Scardapane hasn’t directly acknowledged. Another addition attributed to the new showrunner was bringing back the Punisher, which will set the events of season two in motion.
Jon Bernthal as the Punisher and Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in Daredevil: Born Again – Disney, Marvel Studios
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“By landing really strongly at the beginning and end with an idea of ‘This is what the show wants to be, this is what the show is’, we were able to kick the narrative into the second season relatively unfettered,” Scardapane said.
Letting it Rip
Admitting that the first season of Daredevil: Born Again came out as some sort of “Frankenstein” can be read as an effort to contextualize the season’s shortcomings while distancing himself from earlier creative decisions. The framing positions the season’s tonal inconsistencies as the product of inherited decisions rather than a unified creative vision.
The Kingpin in the Daredevil: Born Again trailer – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
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Whether or not his comments and promise to “really let it rip” in season two will win back the audience is an open question. Season two will premiere March 24 on Disney+, though it’s unclear it will be a weekly release or all the episodes will drop at once.
Did you think Daredevil: Born Again season one was a Frankenstein patchwork? Are you looking forward to season two? Let us know in the comments!
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