As the year comes to a close, one of the biggest stories of 2023 so far is what we call Marvel TV Reckoning. Essentially, the story was Marvel Studios finally recognizing their TV process was broken; they had to stop and rethink it all. That came to a head with their “Daredevil: Born Again” series. Once set as an 18-episode series, Marvel decided to scrap most of the series after the half-finished series—halted during the SAG/WGA strike— was reviewed and deemed unworthy.
That meant Marvel was scrapping most of the series, tossing out much of what was shot, letting go of its head writers and directors, and starting over. THR now reports they have found some of the creatives who will be leading the new iteration of the series.
The creative overhaul of ‘Daredevil’ will now be Dario Scardapane, a writer on “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” and Netflix’s Marvel show “The Punisher,” who will be the new showrunner on the series (a title and hierarchy that didn’t exist in the previous version of Marvel TV; they eschewed showrunners in the past).
Additionally, in another show of confidence, Marvel has hired directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who are filmmakers and exec producers on season two of “Loki.” Benson and Moorhead were also employed as directors on Marvel’s “Moon Knight,” so clearly, the company likes what they bring to the creative table (and one has to wonder if they’ll eventually graduate and be offered a feature film).
Chris Ord and Matt Corman were the previous head writers on the show, but they have departed now that Marvel has found a new creative team (though they will remain exec producers).
Evidently, it might not be an entirely as extensive an overhaul as once thought. THR reports that Marvel wants to return to the original darker tone of “Daredevil”—similar to the one seen on the Netflix series— and the studio “will keep some scenes and episodes that have already been shot, though other serialized elements will be injected.”
They also note that Moorhead and Benson will be directing new episodes to “bring the season to a close,” and “Scardapane will write the new episodes and new scenes, incorporating what was already shot,” so it sounds like Marvel will try and salvage some of what was already shot in the first iteration and find a new path forward.
As outlined in some of the original reports, Marvel used to try and make TV like they did movies. Still, after butting heads with many creatives and having some quit mid-way through production, but the company has now reconfigured its model to embrace the traditional ways of making television.
Inventive filmmakers who already had a cult indie auteur following, Benson and Moorhead were known for making high-concept sci-fi and horror movies like “The Endless,” “Spring,” and “Synchronic”— picture a more lo-fi, DIY Christopher Nolan and you might have a good idea of the kinds of genre movies they were making (Read More: ‘Something In The Dirt’: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead Talk Paranoia, That Charlie Day Conspiracy Meme & The ‘X-Files’ Of It All [Interview])
Again, this is good news for the duo, and it will not surprise us if they get offered a Marvel feature one of these days; Marvel likes to hire in-house and work with people they know and have built good relationships with.
