DAREDEVIL: Original Showrunner Steven DeKnight Takes A Shot At Marvel Studios Amid BORN AGAIN Changes

DAREDEVIL: Original Showrunner Steven DeKnight Takes A Shot At Marvel Studios Amid BORN AGAIN Changes

Steven DeKnight was in charge of Daredevil during its first season on Netflix and the filmmaker has now shared his thoughts on Born Again being scrapped and Marvel Studios' new approach to making TV shows.

News
By JoshWilding - Oct 17, 2023 06:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Daredevil

Earlier this month, we learned that Marvel Studios has gone back to the drawing board with Daredevil: Born Again. Slightly less than half of the two-season series had been shot, but it wasn't working and Head Writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman were fired along with directors attached to the remaining episodes.

Ord and Corman, who came up with a legal procedural which wouldn't have shown Matt Murdock suiting up until nearly the halfway point of season 1, will receive executive producer credits. However, Marvel Studios is searching for a new creative team as it looks to change its approach to small screen storytelling. 

The plan is to begin hiring proper showrunners who will be joined by full-time TV executives in place of movie ones. As Marvel's Brad Winderbaum previously explained, "We need executives that are dedicated to this medium, that are going to focus on streaming, focus on television, because they are two different forms."

This revamped development process will see showrunners write pilots and show bibles, while the days of an entire series being shot - and then figuring out what did and didn't work in post-production with costly reshoots - are now over. 

Someone who has some thoughts on these sweeping changes is the showrunner of Daredevil season 1 on Netflix, Steven DeKnight. 

Taking to Twitter/X, the filmmaker made it clear that he takes no pleasure in seeing Daredevil: Born Again being scrapped in its current iteration. However, he was quick to point out that "I am delighted that they finally realized you need an actual showrunner who's a writer to make a series work."

DeKnight's take on Daredevil was far from perfect but he's not wrong with this assessment. Marvel Studios' approach to hiring "Head Writers" to pen these shows before handing them off to directors (similar to what would happen with a movie) hasn't worked and neither has attempting to fix six hours of television in post-production. 

Daredevil: Born Again is still happening but with no creative team and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, we may not see the series until 2026 at this rate. 

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BillyBatson1000
BillyBatson1000 - 10/17/2023, 6:57 AM
I know they'll get this right. But the delay is worrying - and there seems no end in sight to the writer's strike.
MrDandy
MrDandy - 10/17/2023, 6:59 AM
"We need executives that are dedicated to this medium, that are going to focus on streaming, focus on television, because they are two different forms."

Hmmm. Wonder where I’ve heard that before. Shameless plug!

?si=2Ygtqenz1wWMVq1L
xfan320
xfan320 - 10/17/2023, 7:10 AM
It almost sounds like they want to go back to how Marvel shows were made before Perlmutter was ousted (just without some of those toxic creative elements that he and other executives brought with them lol)
ShimmyShimmyYA
ShimmyShimmyYA - 10/17/2023, 7:45 AM
@xfan320 - they’re also legally obligated to due to their agreement with the union
JDL
JDL - 10/17/2023, 10:13 AM
@ShimmyShimmyYA - Huh ? What obligation ?
ShimmyShimmyYA
ShimmyShimmyYA - 10/17/2023, 11:01 AM
@JDL - the new agreement has requirements that shows have X number of showrunners , writers etc,

Part of these changes for daredevil stem from that cause they can’t just have a movie producer doing shit anymore
JDL
JDL - 10/17/2023, 11:18 AM
@ShimmyShimmyYA - Why would that requirenment apply? Strictly speaking these are not TV.
ShimmyShimmyYA
ShimmyShimmyYA - 10/17/2023, 1:58 PM
@JDL - this is a tv series , it applies regardless of streaming or cable
JDL
JDL - 10/17/2023, 2:30 PM
@ShimmyShimmyYA - I don't think so. YMMV. ::Shrug::
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/17/2023, 7:53 AM
How about a Daredevil movie instesd of another crappy D+ plus show
MrDandy
MrDandy - 10/17/2023, 8:40 AM
@Ryguy88 - that’s what I’ve always said. Netflix did such an amazing job with the show and that will be a hard bar to live up too. Instead of competing with themselves, make a big budget movie as a direct followup to the show.
JDL
JDL - 10/17/2023, 10:16 AM
@Ryguy88 - Won't sell well enough given the costs. Outside of Spidey that's the trouble with street-level.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/18/2023, 7:41 AM
@JDL - you can make a great Daredevil movie for $100M
JDL
JDL - 10/18/2023, 8:08 AM
@Ryguy88 - I'm not sure Disney could, other people sure. :) But outside of the US it's a non-starter. Street Level tends to require both knowledge of local mores and culture and to incoporate them into the story. That's a problem. That sort of stuff doesn't travel well*.

Best example of this is humor. Comedies are well known to be problemetatic in the foreign box office. Ghost busters for example got 18% of it's total outside of domestic.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/18/2023, 3:35 PM
@JDL - it doesn't have to travel super well if it costs $100M. They'd be looking for John Wick numbers. And whether or not Disney is capable of making this isnt my point, but I get what you are saying there.
JDL
JDL - 10/19/2023, 8:46 PM
@Ryguy88 - Actually it does as far as movies goes. Disney is realatively low volume and wants to stay that way. They have other projects (they believe) that could do better business with the limited resources available. And resources are much more limited than you might think.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/19/2023, 10:00 PM
@JDL - disagree. I think there is room for a $100M budget film that aims to gross 400-500 in this franchise.

I also really want to see a good DD movie and I'm sick of these lame D+ series.
JDL
JDL - 10/20/2023, 7:57 AM
@Ryguy88 - Simply put movies like you want when added up take the place of movies that the studios would rather make. As in I can make one of these or twp of those and I really really prefer the former. So it isn't that they can't make the smaller cost ones but rather they want something else more and feel they can not do both. YMMV.
JDL
JDL - 10/20/2023, 8:02 AM
@Ryguy88 - I've liked the D+ shows with one exception so we disagree. That doesn't mean they couldn't be better.

Question. What is your stand on the Netflix DD series ?
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/20/2023, 8:07 AM
@JDL - but recently, Disney has been spending the $200M+ only to achieve that same 400-500 result. Might as well drop their budget and try something new.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/20/2023, 8:08 AM
@JDL - I liked the DD netflix series but I felt it got a little worse with each season. Overall it was good, not great imo
JDL
JDL - 10/20/2023, 8:44 AM
@Ryguy88 - That has only happened once, AM3. It was a BAD movie. But that said had it been good like it was supposed to, it would have done things for the franchise that lesser cost movies could not do.

One thing that the D+ situation is making clear is that large parts of the audience (30%+ imo) do not like the explosion in linked material. As in 'I've got to watch 3 movies and three series a year to keep up'.

Imo I can see a delinking coming on which is a problem. With RDJ, Scarjo, both Chris's, & Renner gone they need new leads. If D+ can't introduce them they are going to have a problem.

Finally I think there has been a near permanent change in what kind of box office some of these pictures can do. Only a very, very few are going to do more than $750M-$800M. People have gotten pickier on what they'll pay to see at a theater, some are permanent losses, and a far fewer will pay to see it more than once. Getting people, especially in the 1st and 3rd categories, to change their behavior requires the movie to be something special. Since Endgame 'special' has happened once in the MCU, Spidey*. As always YMMV.

*special does not necessarily mean anything vis a vis quality. It simply satisfies some need of the viewer and does it well.
JDL
JDL - 10/20/2023, 8:47 AM
@Ryguy88 - Fair enough on the DD series.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/20/2023, 9:52 AM
@JDL - maybe you can blame covid but Black Widow, Shang Chi and Eternals are flopped compared to their budgets. And the marbles is about to flop too and that one cant be blamed on covid.

Seems like disney/marvel needs a restructuring. I'd like them to take their most popular comic book characters and go back to basics with them, make some solid movies and not worry too much about the over arching plot. Daredevil fits in that category to me.
JDL
JDL - 10/20/2023, 4:21 PM
@Ryguy88 - Good lord, Black Widow opened day and date on D+ and the box office. And yes all those you named were indeed hurt badly by covid. The only one I even partly agree with you on is Eternals. (As in another $100M was possible imo if the movie had been better)

The box office didn't begin recovering until Nov-Dec 2022 and from then on it's very hit and miss. What the public wants to watch and what they will go out to see is all over the place. But strret level, other than Spidey, is simply too risky overseas. It's a non starter.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/20/2023, 7:51 PM
@JDL - lol that's why I said blame it on covid! - but in these uncertain boxoffice times, lower budgets are much lower risk. A $100M DD movie with a solid team behind it would do well. That's probably what they are going for with blade. I'd recast the entire thing though, Charlie cox isnt a movie star imo.
JDL
JDL - 10/21/2023, 12:09 AM
@Ryguy88 - No. People will not get out unless it's special and no $100M movie is going to do that. DD is pretty much a domestic only movie. It would be lucky to hit $75M overseas and $200M domestic. That's a fail.
Better to go with something Pixar.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/21/2023, 8:40 AM
@JDL - to say there is no market for mid budget movies is flat out wrong. And Pixar havent been doing the best themselves these days.
JDL
JDL - 10/21/2023, 11:34 AM
@Ryguy88 - I disagree. For this franchise there is no market for a mid budget movie. Look theoretically it can work for movies in general if the movie is extremely domestic oriented as far as it's box office goes. In the $300M+ area imo. But any movie like that leaves out the foreign audience which destroys the MCU. So No. Hell No. The only place where that can maybe happen is D+.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/21/2023, 7:25 PM
@JDL - there havent been any mid budget MCU movies yet so we really dont know - it will likely depend on the quality of the film and marketing if it will end up being a success. And D+ sucks so that's not a solution for anything.
JDL
JDL - 10/21/2023, 8:29 PM
@Ryguy88 - Actually we do have some insight based on actual performance. AoS cleaned up all over the world, It was a big win. The Netflix shows died on the vine outside of North America.

But let me be clear that it's much less that the budget is $100M ish that's the problem here than it is the nature of the content. Street level just won't play unless it's Spidey. YMMV.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/22/2023, 11:40 AM
@JDL - Batman is street level. Blade is street level.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/22/2023, 11:42 AM
Logan, Kickass and Sin City were all street level.
JDL
JDL - 10/22/2023, 12:42 PM
@Ryguy88 - I was referring to the MCU. As for Blade I do not see that as street level.
JDL
JDL - 10/22/2023, 1:01 PM
@Ryguy88 - I disagree on Logan and the other two did only minor business both domestic and foreign.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 10/22/2023, 6:59 PM
@JDL - then what do you define as street level? Does the movie have to stay in the same city?
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