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Titles rarely come more loaded than Daredevil: Born Again. Disney+’s latest series is a reboot and continuation of Daredevil, the well-regarded Marvel show that aired on Netflix between 2015 and 2018. Charlie Cox returns as the blind crime-fighting lawyer Matt Murdock, while Vincent D’Onofrio is Kingpin, a villainous mafioso with a bald head and the dimensions of a mid-range people carrier. Amid a churning sea of superhero content, Daredevil managed to find its footing; it was gritty, modest in its ambitions, and beloved by fans.
The title Born Again is both an homage to a beloved 1986 Daredevil comic arc and a nod to the fact that this is a revival series. But there’s another metatextual meaning here. The past four years have seen Marvel try and fail to replicate its cinematic dominance in the world of streaming; Daredevil: Born Again is the 15th Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) series to hit Disney+ since 2021. Marvel will be hoping that the series can itself be a rebirth – that the company’s misguided forays into the world of streaming can be transformed, phoenix-like, into something capable of flight. If Daredevil, a tried-and-true formula with a built-in fanbase, can’t do it, then I’m not sure anything will.
In the early days of the MCU – that is to say, between the theatrical release of The Incredible Hulk in 2007 and the launch of Disney’s proprietary streaming service in 2022 – the TV arm of the MCU was an entirely different beast. It began on traditional broadcast television: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013-2020), the sci-fi series co-created by Avengers’ Joss Whedon, ran for seven seasons on AMC, while Agent Carter (2015-16), a period spy series focusing on Hayley Atwell’s Captain America character, ran for two. When the TV ecosystem began its pivot to streaming, Disney turned to Netflix to licence another run of shows – Daredevil, Jessica Jones (2015-19), Luke Cage (2016-18), Iron Fist (2017–18), The Punisher (2017-19) plus the The Defenders (2017), which brought together all the series leads into one crossover miniseries.
These series were nominally set in the same world as the Marvel films – with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter even enlisting including some of the MCU’s lesser-known film actors as cast members. But they were also conventionally televisual: more modest than the movies in scope and budget. Absent the mass appeal of the theatrical films, these TV shows attracted more of a niche audience of genre fanatics. Avengers might have been an event, but Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? This was just another night of network television.
Disney, though, had higher ambitions. When the company decided to launch its own streamer, Disney+, in late 2019, it fixed upon a starkly different approach to Marvel’s TV slate. By this point, the MCU had distended beyond its wildest ambitions. It was now more than 20 films deep into its theatrical franchise, and more popular than ever. Just as their movies had monopolised the industry, so too, they thought, would their new streaming series. A whole roster of shows were announced, featuring high-profile actors from the movies, bigger, cinematic budgets and production values. And they were going to be released in formidable quantities.
Call it hubris. Call it folly. Call it a simple miscalculation. But – while their initial effort, the inventive and worthwhile WandaVision, proved a hit – the last four years of Marvel’s streaming output has been underwhelming to the point of disaster. Series after series has come and gone without lasting impact, save for the attention of comic-book purists: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Secret Invasion, Ms Marvel, Moon Knight, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and the recent Echo among them.
The fact that some of these series cost more than most blockbuster films (She-Hulk a mind-boggling $225m) and recruited some bona fide A-listers (Oscar Isaac in Moon Knight; Samuel L Jackson in Secret Invasion), made no difference. Critical responses largely ranged from damning to indifferent – a vast soundboard of voices all intoning the word “meh”. And while each fresh venture brings with it a core of diehards insisting that, no, really, this one is worth your time, they’re yet to convince the bulk of the TV-viewing public. Where once Marvel’s TV shows were sort of like nerdy younger siblings to the core cinematic franchise, or perhaps a shabby but endearing uncle, now the Disney+ relations descend upon gatherings as a swarm of gauche and ill-adjusted cousins, dressed like spivs and poisonous to the vibe. And, what’s more, they won’t stop procreating.
Charlie Cox in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ (Marvel Studios)
It’s worth noting too that Marvel’s streaming slump has coincided with a drop-off in interest in its cinematic slate, and industry-wide “superhero fatigue” – even if the garish phenomenon of Deadpool vs Wolverine last year proved there’s still gold somewhere in them thar hills. Which brings us back to Daredevil: Born Again.
I don’t know if Daredevil: Born Again will live up to expectations, if the pulpy appeal of the Netflix original will have survived the transition to Disney+. There’s certainly a chance it could have: Marvel’s head of TV Brad Winderbaum has said that Born Again (along with last year’s Agatha All Along) represented a conscious pivot towards more thriftily budgeted series – a production model more in line with traditional TV than the blockbuster sprawl of, say, She-Hulk.
But even loyal fans will have their doubts: there’s every chance that Born Again will fall into the same pit of forgotten content that’s claimed the rest of Marvel’s streaming efforts. Crucially, though, they’re going to tune in and find out. If the MCU is striving to be born again, to wash away its sins, there may never be a better chance. Can I get a ‘hallelujah’?
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ is available to stream on Disney+ now
