Marvel Studios has made more than a few questionable decisions throughout the Multiverse Saga, but the latest two are particularly baffling. First, Wonder Man was renewed for a second season in March before the decision was reversed just four months later. Now, we've learned that Daredevil: Born Again will end with its third season.
Neither decision makes much sense when you stop and think about what these shows brought to the MCU. Wonder Man was something wholly unique: a Hollywood satire starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Simon Williams alongside Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery. It earned a 91% critics' score and 87% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, while Abdul-Mateen II received an Emmy nomination.
Yet Marvel renewed it and then pulled the plug, with reports indicating that a Season 2 writers' room never even opened. That's a strange way to treat a series that had already been given the green light to continue, though like Daredevil: Born Again, low viewership may have been a factor.
Talking of the Man Without Fear, after Marvel's original creative team was replaced during a major overhaul, Dario Scardapane helped turn the series into the TV-MA, street-level continuation fans wanted. Its second season currently sits at 86% with critics and 85% with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite that, the axe has fallen.
That's particularly frustrating because Daredevil has been treated as though he exists in his own little corner of the MCU. Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the perfect opportunity to change that. Matt Murdock was actually included in an early version of the movie before being cut, and after all the work Marvel has done to establish Charlie Cox's Daredevil as part of this universe, why keep him so isolated?
The timing makes even less sense when Season 3 is set to reunite Cox with Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones, Mike Colter's Luke Cage and Finn Jones' Iron Fist. We're finally getting a proper Defenders reunion, but now we're being told this is the beginning of the end?
Marvel's handling of showrunner Dario Scardapane also stings. He was brought in after the original Daredevil: Born Again creative team was removed, helping steer the show through one of the most significant creative overhauls in recent memory (and not just in the superhero space). He delivered in a big way. Still, his contract hasn't been renewed, and he won't be there to finish post-production.
While low ratings might have sealed their fate, bad marketing won't have helped. Wonder Man was not positioned as a must-watch MCU series, while Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 received its first trailer on January 27 for a March 24 premiere. That's hardly the kind of passionate campaign you'd expect for one of Marvel's most important returning characters. He was treated like an afterthought.
Both shows represented something the MCU desperately needed during a Multiverse Saga that's been hit-or-miss: experimentation. Wonder Man gave us a Black superhero lead in an offbeat comedy-drama, while Daredevil: Born Again brought back the TV-MA, brutally grounded side of Netflix's Daredevil.
After years of criticism over Marvel playing things too safe, it's difficult not to wonder whether that's exactly what's coming next. If these are the kinds of shows Marvel is willing to abandon, what does that say about the MCU's willingness to take risks in the next Saga? Are we just going to be bombarded by Avengers and X-Men projects? That's not the worst thing, but it's also the ultimate example of playing it safe.
If Wonder Man shows up in an Avengers movie and we see Daredevil in Spider-Man 5, then all will be forgiven. For now, this is a disappointing turn of events as we enter the Multiverse Saga's final stages, and two decisions that will be very hard to move past.