DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN Editor Says Marvel "Told Us Not To Watch The Netflix Show" Prior To Overhaul

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN Editor Says Marvel "Told Us Not To Watch The Netflix Show" Prior To Overhaul

One of the editors who worked on Daredevil: Born Again, Stephanie Filo, has revealed that the crew was told not to watch the original Netflix series prior to the creative overhaul...

By MarkCassidy - Jun 23, 2025 08:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Daredevil

We already knew that Daredevil: Born Again was shaping up to be a very different show prior to the much-discussed creative overhaul, but it sounds like original showrunners Matt Corman and Chris Ord (and likely some studio higher-ups) were more determined to distance the Disney+ revival from its Netflix predecessor than we realized.

While speaking to Awards Radar, editor Stephanie Filo revealed that she and others who worked on the show were told not to watch Netflix's Daredevil.

“The original take on it was to lean away from the Netflix Daredevil show. They actually told us not to watch the Netflix show, because they didn’t want to affect how we were editing it. Once we restructured everything and figured out we would do a different take on it, we dove back into the Netflix side of things. We were able to use temp music from that Netflix series, and get back to that darker vibe.”

This tracks will what we've heard about Born Again before it was reworked, as the show was said to be much lighter in tone and more comedic. For example, the divisive bank heist episode with the eye-rolling Ms. Marvel nods was reportedly the only episode that wasn't changed at all prior to the Hollywood strikes.

Editor Cedric Nairn-Smith added that, once the series was overhauled, it was decided to lean into the central theme of how Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk’s stories parallelled each other.

“Sometimes, we would iterate these episodes, and would be asked at times to intercut these scenes. We thought intercuts would not work because they weren’t intended to be intercut. However, once we started intercutting, we found out that there were common threads here. It felt like it was a happy accident that these inner cuts worked, and that you would find these connections. A lot of it was trial and error trying to find those threads, but some of it was also planned.”

Though the show certainly had its share of detractors, Daredevil: Born Again was a big hit with critics (87% on Rotten Tomatoes), and seemed to be embraced by the majority of fans as one of Marvel's better Disney+ efforts. We had also been led to believe that the Man Without Fear's long-awaited return did pretty good numbers for the streaming service, but this doesn't seem to be the case.

We recently learned that Daredevil: Born Again has become the first live-action Marvel Studios series not to make Nielsen's Top 10 Original Streaming Shows List. The only other Marvel streaming titles to fail to find their way onto the list were animated (What If...? Seasons 1 and 3, I Am Groot, and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man).

Born Again is also the second live-action MCU Disney+ show not to make Nielsen's overall top 10 after Secret Invasion

A somewhat surprising development, but we already know that Born Again will be back for at least one more season (filming is currently underway). A third is also planned, so it'll be interesting to see if viewership improves for the sophomore run.

In Marvel Television's Daredevil: Born Again, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.

The show also stars Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, with Ayelet Zurer and Jon Bernthal. Dario Scardapane is on board as showrunner.

Episodes are directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and David Boyd; and executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Sana Amanat, Chris Gary, Dario Scardapane, Christopher Ord & Matthew Corman, and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead.

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Gambito
Gambito - 6/23/2025, 8:49 AM
The whole thing was just bizarre, they wanted to reset daredevil and move away from the Netflix show yet they kept Charlie and Vincent? Only to fool the audience into thinking it was a revival since From the beginning they established that variants can be played by other actors
HulkisHoly
HulkisHoly - 6/23/2025, 11:29 AM
@Gambito -

Perfect example of having your cake and eating it too.
Gabimaru
Gabimaru - 6/23/2025, 8:51 AM
Then they just made it a continution of the netflix show after overhaul. Good job marvel. Yet some folks here still defend born again was good 🤮
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 6/23/2025, 9:07 AM
@Gabimaru - I enjoyed it a lot, and that's good enough for me
Urubrodi
Urubrodi - 6/23/2025, 9:28 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Same here, one of the best things Marvel did in recent years, will never get the hate and honestly don't care
JustAWaffle
JustAWaffle - 6/23/2025, 10:29 AM
@Gabimaru - It was good. Not great. But good. You could easily tell when they made the creative changes.

I have much higher hopes for S2.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 6/23/2025, 3:41 PM
@Gabimaru - What do the 2 things contradict in each other?
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/23/2025, 8:59 AM
I mean , it makes sense that they might have told a lot of the crew atleast not to watch the Netflix show to not be influenced by it if they were going for a different take or atleast somewhat different tone…

However idk if the tone would have been lighter or more comedic since wasn’t it reported that while ep 5 was the only unchanged one (which I personally thought was enjoyable) that eps 2-7 were mostly unchanged aswell with only 1 aswell as 8 & 9 being written from the ground up post overhaul?.

If so then I don’t think the show was gonna be that tonally far from the Netflix version but could be wrong.

Anyway , I’m glad Marvel acknowledged their original approach wasn’t really working and thus decided to connect & make it more in line with the Netflix show while still doing their own thing to an extent for the sake of creativity which I like.
Huskers
Huskers - 6/23/2025, 9:00 AM
That sounds like Marvel these days. Why watch something that was great and try to emulate that?!?!
SteviesRightFoo
SteviesRightFoo - 6/23/2025, 9:02 AM
Yea, we can tell. Thanks for thrashing my favourite character Disney 👍
Usernametaken
Usernametaken - 6/23/2025, 9:39 AM
@SteviesRightFoo - I was so bored by this show, I didn't bother to finish the season...
SteviesRightFoo
SteviesRightFoo - 6/23/2025, 9:57 AM
@Usernametaken - it was garbage.
JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 6/23/2025, 10:29 AM
@SteviesRightFoo - complete trash show
Beer85
Beer85 - 6/23/2025, 9:05 AM
This is such typical modern bs. "WHATEVER YOU DO! DO NOT WATCH SOMETHING THAT WAS REALLY REALLY POPULAR! PEOPLE MIGHT LIKE THE PRODUCT MORE!!!!". It's on the same level as any actor saying they were told not to read comics or something.

Tiresome , very tiresome.
BruceWayng
BruceWayng - 6/23/2025, 9:11 AM
That lines up with how they tell writers not to read comics and hire directors who hate the audience.

Who exactly do they think they are making these projects for?
CreateNowSlpL8r
CreateNowSlpL8r - 6/23/2025, 9:49 AM
@BruceWayng - an audience that doesn't exist. Activists and self insert writers don't have an audience.
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 6/23/2025, 10:55 AM
@BruceWayng - the ever elusive "modern audience"
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 6/23/2025, 9:15 AM
I liked Born Again for the most part, but some of the editing drove me crazy. Like the quick cuts back and forth from Fisk to Matt during pivotal scenes. I get what they were doing, but it happened so often I started predicting to my wife when they’d do it (always when Fisk and Matt were separately fighting people, and always when Fisk and Matt were separately in their offices).

Kind of wild to me that Marvel told the editors not to watch the Netflix series. “Yes, this show that the fans loved so much we decided to bring back, but we don’t want our version to feel like that version”. So weird.

I know the subtitle (Born Again) was added for copyright reasons as to not be beholden to certain contracts and pay negotiations from the original series, so maybe this way an additional step in that direction.
MisterBones
MisterBones - 6/23/2025, 9:19 AM
The complete definition of stupidity. Don’t watch and learn from the thing that everyone absolutely adored.
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/23/2025, 9:27 AM
Show was ass what hope is there for season 2
Scarilian
Scarilian - 6/23/2025, 1:01 PM
@0bstreperous -
Agreed, it was absolutely garbage. It didn't even chart on the nielsen ratings so wasn't even popular. They should just bury it, cancel plans for Season 2 and just pretend it never happened.

Sadly with the notion that Punisher may be in Spider-man: BraND - I think they are going to find a way to further ruin characters.
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/23/2025, 1:59 PM
@Scarilian - finally everyone is seeing what I've been saying since the beginning the show was such a disappointment
dagenspear
dagenspear - 6/23/2025, 3:44 PM
@Scarilian -
@0bstreperous -

Why avoid the problem, rather than try to fix it?
dagenspear
dagenspear - 6/23/2025, 3:45 PM
@0bstreperous - What everyone is seeing that?
0bstreperous
0bstreperous - 6/23/2025, 4:43 PM
@dagenspear - everyone is seeing the show was no good and the haphazard production is why
I feel vindicated
dagenspear
dagenspear - 6/24/2025, 12:28 AM
@0bstreperous - Who is everyone?
Scarilian
Scarilian - 6/26/2025, 2:48 PM
@dagenspear -
At some stage it becomes too many problems. We'd end up with a failed attempt where the focus becomes less telling a story and more trying to correct the work that has occurred before.
HashTagSwagg
HashTagSwagg - 6/23/2025, 9:28 AM
Explains a lot
supermanrex
supermanrex - 6/23/2025, 9:33 AM
the eye rolling ms. marvel nods?? trying really hard to get cool edgy points from the haters.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/23/2025, 9:42 AM
@supermanrex - I know right…

People want a shared universe until it actually happens.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 6/23/2025, 11:20 AM
@supermanrex - I mean, I rolled my eyes. If you liked it that's just fine.
supermanrex
supermanrex - 6/23/2025, 1:21 PM
@MarkCassidy - whatever , but the articles say shit like that to stir the pot. if they decided to change up the episode to be more netflix dark, im gonna say they will have kept the ms marvel stuff as well since they decided to do so now. their point was to display that matt is in the wider MCU sandbox now. the episode was not bad. it was like a stand alone issue of the comic.
soberchimera
soberchimera - 6/23/2025, 9:38 AM
Remember how Marvel Studios patted themselves on the back for not letting the Secret Invasion writers read the Secret Invasion comics?
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 6/23/2025, 9:43 AM
Make it make sense marvel defenders 😭😭😭😭
Nomis929
Nomis929 - 6/23/2025, 9:44 AM
Maybe they should have.
DarthOmega
DarthOmega - 6/23/2025, 9:46 AM
Marvel: Hey you know that cool thing that everyone likes?

Execs: Yeah.

Marvel: Do the opposite.

Execs: Why?

Marvel: Because [frick] the audience that's why.

CreateNowSlpL8r
CreateNowSlpL8r - 6/23/2025, 9:51 AM
I wonder if this studio is capable of doing anything right at this point. Everything they have put out this year bombed, including Echo. If FF bombs, how do you sell that to shareholders? At least when The Marvels bombed, they had Guardians 3.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 6/23/2025, 10:13 AM
The new purple/blue haired people at Marvel ruining what the regular haired people had already set up
dagenspear
dagenspear - 6/23/2025, 3:46 PM
@Matchesz - Kevin Feige has purple/blue hair?
JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 6/23/2025, 10:28 AM
No shit. Disney did what Disney does, take something superior and make it shit, but keep the name. Pathetic.
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