Two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again arrived on Disney+ yesterday evening, and the latter, "Excessive Force," was helmed by David Boyd. He'll be back for next week's seventh instalment and recently spoke with Phase Hero to discuss his work on the series.
By now, you're no doubt as sick as us of hearing the words "creative overhaul," but the changes Marvel Studios made to the series continue to be a subject of great fascination to many fans.
How much changed? What was cut? And how was the story supposed to end before a new pilot and finale were shot? We're unlikely to ever know the full answers to those questions, but Boyd did at least share some intriguing breadcrumbs.
"I did two episodes that were based on a previous pilot that Michael Cuesta had done. My two, I think, were numbered differently. 4 and 5 or 5 and 6, I can't remember," he explained. "I did those completely, cut them all the way through and then in the three or four month interim when there were strikes and things, Marvel decided to rework it."
When a new showrunner, Dario Scardapane, was appointed to replace Matt Corman and Chris Ord, everything changed. "All the episodes that had been photographed after the original pilot had to be reworked to fit in with that pilot so I came back to do the two again, essentially [Laughs]," Boyd explained. "I would say half is the original thing and the other half is big adjustments made by the new pilot."
That included changing which episode Jon Bernthal's Punisher appeared in; while Boyd shot that intense exchange between him and Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock, it was moved back to the fourth episode, "Sic Semper Systema."
"The second time around after the Aaron and Justin pilot, we had done a scene before that with Punisher and Charlie who come together where Punsher lives. Phenomenal scene," he said. "There was quite a bit of anticipation as he got close to shooting on Daredevil. This was something special and there was a lot of wringing of hands."
"[Jon would] come in with requests and I'd say, 'Just let that guy go. If he wants to bring stuff, you can't stop it.' That scene is in a previous [episode]."
When it was put to the director that Daredevil seemed to contemplate killing Muse during their battle by choking him, Boyd confirmed that was the case and it's why the Man Without Fear lets out such a primal scream shortly after their battle concludes.
"Oh yeah. Definitely. You're absolutely right and he's aware of it," he explained. "We did other scenes that made the cut in the first iteration that fed into that. Even though they're not aired, that also came through in those moments with the character."
Six episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are now streaming on Disney+.