What was once the toast of Netflix, before becoming Disney+’s Red Whale, Daredevil is leaving Hell’s Kitchen to the Kingpin. The Hollywood Reporter reports Daredevil: Born Again will end after its third season, which production wrapped on about two months ago. The news, THR notes, comes after Marvel “quietly” split from Daredevil showrunner Dario Scardapane, whose contract expired and was not renewed in the middle of season three’s post-production.
Things have never been particularly easygoing for The Man Without Fear. In 2022, Marvel announced it was bringing Charlie Cox, who starred as Matt Murdock on Netflix’s Daredevil, to the MCU via an ambitious 18-episode first season. But shortly thereafter, the show underwent a complete creative overhaul after shooting six episodes. The 2023 strikes had shut down the industry, giving Marvel time to retool. Originally developed as a total reboot with episodic installments and Daredevil’s suit not appearing until episode four, the show’s head writers, Matt Corman and Chris Ord, were let go, and Scardapane was brought in to make a direct continuation of the Netflix series. The series was rejiggered as Born Again, with Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprising the roles of Daredevil and Kingpin, along with Netflix holdovers, including Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page and Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson. The series finally arrived last year, with its 18-episode first season being split in two. The nine-episode first season premiered last year, and the eight-episode follow-up concluded in May.
Three seasons appear to be the limit for a Daredevil TV show. Defenders notwithstanding, Daredevil lasted three seasons on Netflix, too. It seems like only yesterday that Disney was champing at the bit for Netflix’s license on the series to expire so they could bring a big, flashy hero who wasn’t snapped out of existence into the MCU, which had been left directionless following Endgame. Even before Netflix’s license expired, Marvel was shoehorning Matt Murdock into Spider-Man: No Way Home and Kingpin into Hawkeye. Also, ahead of its premiere, Daredevil appeared on She-Hulk, which Born Again took pains to try and forget. But people don’t forget. They remember the scintillating and legal romance between those two comic book lawyers. Now their love affair is but a stream dream lost in ones and zeroes, broken only by ad breaks that not even the costliest subscription can avoid.
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