Disney+ Daredevil revival series Born Again is almost here, and it promises to recapture the hard-hitting glory of its Netflix predecessor. That’s plenty exciting, however, you may still be wondering why Daredevil: Born Again has taken so long to arrive.
After all, Netflix cancelled Daredevil back in November 2018. So, Marvel Studios and Disney have had more than six years to give Charlie Cox’s Man Without Fear another shot at headlining his own show. Shouldn’t Born Again have dropped years ago?
Not necessarily. As it turns out, there were three main factors that delayed Daredevil: Born Again – some Marvel and Disney could control and some they couldn’t. Read on for the full lowdown!
Marvel’s Daredevil Deal With Netflix Needed to Expire
The first major roadblock to Daredevil’s return to the screen – big or small – was Marvel’s deal with Netflix. While Netflix opted not to produce Daredevil Season 4 in 2018, a clause in the streamer’s contract reportedly blocked Marvel from featuring Matt Murdock and his supporting cast in any non-Netflix production until two years after the cancellation. This immediately postponed any potential revival efforts to 2020, at the earliest. On top of that, Marvel and Disney didn’t regain distribution rights to Daredevil Seasons 1-3 (or the wider Defenders Saga) until March 2022.
So, not only could Marvel not develop a new Daredevil series, it couldn’t stream the old one through its parent company’s streaming platform, Disney+, either. As such, studio boss Kevin Feige and his team made the understandable decision to hold off on developing the project that would eventually become Born Again until both these issues were resolved. Once they were – and following the enthusiastic response to Cox and co-star Vincent D’Onofrio’s MCU returns in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye, respectively – Feige and co. quickly got serious about developing Born Again.
The Hollywood Strikes Delayed Born Again’s Shoot
But even when Marvel was finally ready to roll on Daredevil: Born Again, they had another, unforeseen hurdle to clear. After spending roughly a year in pre-production, Born Again kicked off shooting in March 2023 – a few months before the Writers Guild of America strike. So, when filming continued into May and the strikes commenced, Daredevil: Born Again was caught right in the middle of it all. Forget Kingpin or Bullseye: it turns out Daredevil’s most formidable foes are disgruntled screenwriters, who promptly derailed Born Again‘s shooting schedule.
WGA picketers descended on the Born Again set on May 8, 2023, shutting down filming for the day. This happened multiple other times throughout May and June, putting a stop to production on most (if not all) occasions. Plus, original head writers Matt Corman and Chris Ord couldn’t sit in on filming because they are themselves WGA members. Eventually, Marvel and Disney put Born Again on hiatus, until the WGA strike (and the headaches it was causing) was over. All told, cameras wouldn’t roll again on Daredevil: Born Again until January 2024 – although the strike isn’t solely to blame…
Marvel Hit Reset on Daredevil: Born Again Mid-Production
Despite the picketing and subsequent shutdown, Daredevil: Born Again‘s cast and crew still managed to get six of Season 1’s episodes in the can. Unfortunately, when the powers that be at Marvel sat down to watch them, they weren’t exactly thrilled. So, in September 2023, the studio removed Corman and Ord as Born Again‘s lead creatives and set about overhauling the series. A month later, Dario Scardapane (who worked on Netflix’s Daredevil spinoff, Punisher) landed the newly created showrunner position. His job? To bring things more in-line with the Netflix show and (as Scardapane himself recently put it) dial back the “navel-gazing” of Corman and Ord’s stuff.
On the face of it, that all sounds great. But drastically revamping a show takes time, which is why Born Again didn’t start up production as soon as the WGA strike ended in October 2023. Scardapane and his team weren’t ready yet; they still needed two more months. And even with a bunch of footage already sorted (some of Corman and Ord’s scenes apparently survived the reset), Born Again wouldn’t wrap until April 2024. So, add this second round of filming onto Daredevil: Born Again’s already protracted production cycle, and it’s easy to see why it’s taken so long!
Daredevil: Born Again debuts on Disney+ on March 4, 2025.