Marvel Studios is starting out 2024 on a sturdy footing as it begins to refocus and rebuild its TV shows.
Coming off the strong opening of Echo, its crime series centered on Indigenous and deaf anti-heroine Maya Lopez, Marvel next turns its attention to Daredevil: Born Again, which restarts production Monday after a lengthy hiatus.
Philip Silvera, who acted as stunt and fight coordinator on the Netflix version of Daredevil that ran in the mid-2010s, has returned to the fold to act as stunt coordinator and second unit director for the new series.
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His hiring is the latest example of the retooling Born Again underwent as it was changed from a legal procedural to something that aims to harken back to the gritty and violent tone of that first well-regarded series. It also reaffirms the show’s focus on more street-level heroics and less on heavy (and costly) visual effects.
Daredevil was in mid-production in New York when the writers and actors strike forced it to pause over the summer. When Marvel execs reviewed the footage, they had a change of creative heart and decided to go into a new direction. Writer Dario Scardapane, who worked on Netflix’s Marvel show The Punisher, and the directing team of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who helmed episodes of season two of Loki, were brought in change the direction of the series.
Not only are Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprising their roles from the Netflix series of Daredevil/Matt Murdock and Kingpin/Wilson Fisk, respectively, but Jon Bernthal is back as the vigilante known as The Punisher.
And among other retooled elements, Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson are rumored to have been hired to reprise their roles of Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, key members of the Daredevil’s supporting cast. The characters were popular in the Netflix era series but had not initially made the transition to the Marvel series. The newfound addition, first reported by The Insneider newsletter, would remedy that oversight.
The show will not be 18 episodes as first announced or that of a typical broadcast network season but will be more in line with the original Netflix series model of lower episode counts. Daredevil got a tease in Echo, whose mid-credits scene set up crime boss Fisk making a run at mayor of New York City.
Echo, meanwhile, bucked the downward trend of superhero screened entertainment by breaking out of the pack with its unique characteristics. It debuted number one on both Disney+ and Hulu, and established actress Alaqua Cox as a viable lead. The show has continued to remain in the spotlight with Cox making several talk show appearances this week and with the show’s director, Sydney Freeland, scheduled to appear at the Sundance Film Festival with a fireside chat at the IllumiNative’s Indigenous House on Sunday.
The show also had a halo effect for Marvel: Daredevil seasons one and two, Hawkeye, and Punisher season one received major audience bumps, according to insiders.
Marvel is interested in doing more with the character and is already developing new ideas as it seeks to build out its street-level heroes.
