Following today's news that Marvel Studios is planning a massive overhaul of the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again Disney+ series, we may have some more details on the previous version of the show.
Apparently, Marvel execs reviewed some footage from the show while production was paused during the strikes, and decided that a "significant creative reboot" was in order. Head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman, along with directors for the remaining episodes, were let go, and Kevin Feige is said to have signed-off on a pretty major course-change.
One aspect of the story that was said to have come in for some criticism from the higher-ups was the fact that the show was shaping up to be more of a courtroom drama/procedural than a superhero tale, with Matt Murdock only suiting-up as the Man Without Fear in episode 4.
So, why did Murdock decide to hang up the costume in the first place?
Just in case these plot points carry over, possible spoilers follow.
According to insider CWGST, Matt put aside "the Devil’s cowl for over a year after failing to save Foggy." He also mentions that "Kingpin would’ve been Mayor, winning on a campaign of backing law enforcement while discouraging street level heroes like Punisher, Daredevil… and Spider-Man."
If accurate, this would explain why Elden Henson, who played Foggy Nelson in the Netflix Daredevil, didn't reprise the role for Born Again. There's no mention of Karen Allen, but since Deborah Ann Woll wasn't expected to return, either, there's a chance she would have shared Foggy's fate.
UPDATE:
The show will be (or was going to be, anyway) loosely based on the '80s Marvel Comics series of the same name by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli, but is not expected to be an overly faithful adaptation. Despite some significant changes to the story, "Daredevil versus Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, remains the focal point."
Born Again will be PG-13, but Marc Jobst, who helmed some key episodes of the Netflix show, simply doesn't believe Cox, D'Onofrio and Bernthal would have agreed to return if they didn't think it was going to work.
"So I’ve got no idea what they’re doing and how they’re approaching the Disney version of those worlds," he said in a recent interview. "I can’t imagine that Charlie, Vince and Jon would sign up for something that they felt was anodyne. They just wouldn’t do it. So in some form or another, Disney must have persuaded them to say, 'This is a journey worth coming on.'"