Key Takeaways
- Marvel is expanding the MCU with Daredevil: Born Again to introduce beloved characters and new storylines.
- Show continuity relies heavily on previous series, potentially alienating viewers who didn’t watch the original.
- Marvel’s formula of tying all projects together creates a barrier for fans who must watch everything to understand new content.
While the arrival of Daredevil: Born Again, there has been much rejoicing among its fans from back when it was a Netflix original show and didn’t have any sort of tie into the MCU. After all, when the first episode hits, Daredevil: Born Again will officially usher in one of the most popular Marvel Comics characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show will also be bringing some of the characters that were fan favorites along with the hero of Hell’s Kitchen as well as some iconic villains that haven’t been part of the MCU before.
By bringing this show back, the MCU is expanding and that’s a good thing. There are stories that Daredevil: Born Again can tell that none of the other movies or television shows can. Matt Murdock is a unique character and not just because he’s blind and operates with a special ability that is unlike any other hero in the multiverse. Unfortunately, the show is apparently going to do something that might hamper the ability for people to see just how special this particular series can be. And it’s doing it because this is how Marvel wants all it shows and movies to work. At some point, Kevin Feige and his people are going to realize that formula doesn’t work nearly as well as they think, but for now, its the one they’re sticking to, and that’s a problem.
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Daredevil Born Again Chasing Viewers Off Already?
Perhaps even more frustrating about the way that Marvel is rolling out Daredevil: Born Again is that there was a moment when Marvel looked like it was doing things the right way. During a recent interview with Empire, the show’s star, Charlie Cox talked about the direction Born Again will take.
“There was talk early on about reinventing the whole thing, to see if Matt was a slightly different person. But it ended up more of a continuation.”
Cox went on to say that a lot of the history from the original Daredevil Netflix show will carry into Born Again. The problem with that should be obvious at this point. It means that there will be stories that people won’t be able to follow is they didn’t watch the original. And considering that original show was both quite a while ago and really only fair to middling in quality, that should frustrate MCU fans.
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Created By |
Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman, Chris Ord |
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Showrunner |
Dario Scardapane |
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Starring |
Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson |
Marvel has done this far too often, especially of late. It’s the intended consequence of having a totally connected universe using both movies and television shows. Things that happened in Wandavision carried right into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. If someone didn’t watch the former, they almost certainly wouldn’t understand why Wanda went so very, very bad in the latter. If someone didn’t watch Wandavision, they’d also have no point of reference for Agatha All Along. And if someone didn’t watch Loki, they’d be pretty darn lost on just what the heck the big evil entity was that was chasing Wade Wilson for most of Deadpool & Wolverine. They’d also be pretty confused about who Kang was in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Despite technically being standalone projects, Marvel has made it so that fans need to watch every single thing they put out in order to have a firm grasp on what’s going on in the worlds they love. And while that’s annoying, the one blessing for the MCU is that at least each chapter comes relatively quickly. With Daredevil: Born Again the show is picking up a few years after the final season of the original Netflix show. That final season aired six years ago. There’s a decent chance even some of the more devout MCU fans might not even know it existed. It makes things easier now that it’s on Disney+, but people still need to go looking for it.
Marvel Walking A Tightrope With Daredevil: Born Again
While it’s frustrating that Marvel is using the same formula that has been far too common place of late, it has backed itself into an area where it finds itself between a rock and a hard place by taking as long as it has with Born Again. Feige and the rest of the higher ups know that people don’t want to sit through the characters all being introduced again. They don’t want to go through the idea of Matt Murdock reestablishing himself again.
However, there are going to be issues with people who didn’t watch the entire series, don’t want to have to do it in order to watch the new series, who simply could find themselves deeply confused at certain parts. It’s a formula that Marvel embraces. Daredevil: Born Again is hardly the first IP to do this. But that doesn’t mean the company should keep doing this to its fans.
Daredevil: Born Again
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