Pop Culture Pick: Should Daredevil Have Returned?

Assessing Matt Murdock's comeback crusade

Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, Disney dares to bring Daredevil back. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite, Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite and Blue Sky: @jammerwhite.bsky.social

Image Credit: Disney+

Your eyes do not deceive you. This week’s Pop Culture Pick column is cosplaying as Weekend Watch, but I do want to sprinkle in an extra portion of opinion given that this new show is more than just the latest product to roll off the Disney/Marvel MCU-based production line.

Daredevil: Born Again has had something off a troubled time on its journey to screens. While the Netflix version of the character’s street-level showcase was widely praised and enjoyed (especially its first season), it looked for a while like the plan was going to be to essentially forget that happened and just bring a slightly less dark version of blind lawyer-turned-vigilante Mat Murdock (Charlie Cox) into the MCU.

The way was paved by appearances in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, but when the original incarnation of Born Again was announced, developers/showrunners Matt Corman Chris Ord seemed focused on moving away from the Netflix version and going for more of a legal procedural with just a sprinkling of vigilante vengeance.

Yet when the strikes hit in 2023, Disney and Marvel executives got a look at what had been shot (and both Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, who returns as hulking villain Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk, voiced their concerns), and decided to go another way.

In came Dario Scardapane, whose credits including the Punisher spin-off focused on Jon Bernthal’s veteran tough guy, and a merged version of the show –– born again, if you will –– is what has now released its first two episodes on Disney+.

The result is certainly mixed, working especially when it has Cox sharing the screen with the likes of D’Onofrio or Clark Johnson (as retired cop Cherry, who offers our hero help), even if the stitches between the two versions are apparent at times.

If you were thinking that being on Disney’s streaming service would mean a reduction in intensity when it came to action scenes, think again –– there are fights in here to rival much of what was achieved for Netflix.

But a word of caution: if you are a fan of the Netflix incarnation and were hoping for a straight continuation of Matt’s work with colleagues Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), prepare to have those hopes dashed in the very first episode. Plus, those looking for suited Daredevil action will be disappointed that, following a prologue, it takes several episodes for Matt to don his outfit once again (partly because the story is about him struggling to shake off that identity at a time when vigilantes are not seen favorably.

Yet in both Cox and D’Onofrio, the show has two solid leading men, their stories always compelling even when lingering elements from the trial-based show don’t live up to the same level.

Would I have preferred for the team to essentially start over again? Maybe, but financial considerations always scupper those dreams. I’m more interested to see where the show goes in the second half of the season, i.e. the nine remaining episodes starting production now, which are surely going to skew more towards the second incarnation of the show.

For now, though, I still recommend this rebirth for the Man Without Fear.

The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are now on Disney+. New episodes launch weekly on Tuesdays. I’ve seen all nine episodes of the first season.