Midway through production, Marvel Studios decided to take Daredevil: Born Again back to the drawing board. The show's Head Writers were fired and replaced by showrunner Dario Scardapane, and a series of sweeping changes followed.
The show added characters like Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, and Bullseye, recast Vanessa Fisk, and made Netflix's Daredevil officially part of the MCU's continuity. Some scenes remained, but the only untouched episode was the bank robbery (which star Charlie Cox has openly admitted was his least favourite of the finished season).
It was really the new premiere and finale that gave fans a taste of what to expect from Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, and in a new interview with SFX Magazine, Scardapane talked about leading that creative overhaul.
"The task of season one was a really sick kind of fun," he shared. "They'd gone in a direction where it was a different kind of show. It was much more of a procedural, much more focused on the courtroom."
To get Daredevil: Born Again where it needed to be, Scardapane admits they had to make "do this cobbled-together Frankenstein," adding, "By landing really strongly at the beginning and end with an idea of 'This is what the show wants to be, this is what the show is', we were able to kick the narrative into the second season relatively unfettered."
"You'll see in some of these episodes that we were able to really let it rip in a way we might not have been able to last season."
While a version of Daredevil: Born Again that was essentially a courtroom drama has some potential, we've previously heard that there was almost no costumed action until the finale. That's clearly a misstep, and not what most fans want from the MCU's Man Without Fear.
Another big change heading into Season 2 is the evolution of Karen Page's role. Scardapane explains, "When I came into season one, and Karen was originally not a big part of the narrative – or no part of it at all – I was like, 'Guys, guys, guys, we can’t do that!' Karen’s got to be a part of this world for a lot of reasons, and we didn’t have as much of her as I would have liked in season one."
"In season two, the evolution of Karen Page feels so on path with everything that’s come before. In my mind – and in Debs’s mind – she’s never been a sidekick; she’s never been a girlfriend. She’s always been somebody who both mirrors and pushes Murdock – not always in the best way."
"This version of Karen Page is a blast. It’s a curveball that you haven’t seen before," he teased. "I think fans are really going to dig this Karen Page. The events of Mayor Fisk’s rise prompt people to take sides, and some of them have to take sides pretty vigorously."
In Daredevil: Born Again, survival, resistance and redemption collide as the battle for the soul of New York begins. In Season 2, Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil.
But beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.
Daredevil: Born Again returns to Disney+ on March 24.