Summary

Daredevil: Born Again was reworked, adding 3 episodes’ worth of material to enhance themes and connective tissue.

Season 2 will have eight episodes, with the story unfolding vigorously and possibly viciously.

The writers were “shocked” by the lack of pushback on violence, being encouraged to make it gritty and bloody by Disney and Marvel.

Before their latest project, both Sana Amanat and Dario Scardapane helped write the essential language of Marvel. Amanat created the universally beloved Ms. Marvel, which soon became one of the MCU’s most popular series on Disney+. Scardapane was one of the writers behind fan-favorite The Punisher, and is now back showing off his skills with Amanat in the highly anticipated new series Daredevil: Born Again.
Pushed to his limits, the MCU’s Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) has vowed never to become Daredevil again, instead investing his time in work, his friends, and balancing his busy life. Simultaneously, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) is out in the open, running for Mayor of New York, himself balancing a new public lifestyle with his past secrets. As both men push forward, accepting of their new starts, their combined history of crime and violence are just around the corner to shake their lives up and set them both back into their dangerous lives. The series also features the return of Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page, and Jon Bernthal’s fan-favorite Frank Castle, The Punisher.
For this interview, Amanat and Scardapane were kind enough to speak with Collider’s Steve Weintraub about the return of Daredevil. During their conversation, they discuss the rewriting process, post writers’ and actors’ strikes, exciting future seasons of Born Again, and which major exec told them “the bloodier” the series is, “the better.”
What Changed During the ‘Daredevil: Born Again” Overhaul?

“Quite a bit. Quite a bit lived.”

COLLIDER: A lot of people at Collider know that there was a lot of reworking of the show behind the scenes, and I believe you shot six episodes before things got reworked. How much of those six episodes were actually reincorporated into the show, and how much had to be cut because of the reworking of the show?
DARIO SCARDAPANE: Quite a bit. Quite a bit lived. The thing is, and I think Sana can speak to this, they had that time during the strike to take a look at what they had, and those six episodes were super solid—I saw them way later. They were super solid, but the issue was bringing up the themes and feelings that we loved from the old show and context. I’ll say that over and over again. That first episode is the one that takes us into the run, and we needed to have those first 15 minutes of that first episode to set the stage.
What we ended up doing was the amount of additional material was essentially three episodes worth, and then quite a bit of interstitial material inside the body of the middle six. I feel like it was mostly enhancement, and it was really bringing up the stuff that we loved a little more—Fisk and Matt, a little more action, pathos. The show was there. It wanted to be something; we just had to do some things to draw that out.
SANA AMANAT: And again, credit to Matt Corman and Chris Ord. Those writers, some of which stayed on with us in this new writers’ room, really gave us, also, a naturalistic and real-world New York, as well, and that’s really what we wanted to build upon. But yes, like Dario said, it was elements where we wanted to pull on threads. We wanted to make it a bit darker and more intense and offer that connective tissue that just wasn’t quite there before, but that connective tissue to the previous show, of course, with our returning characters and telling the drama of who they are, almost seven to eight to 10 years later. We don’t know the exact timeline around that.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 Will Have Only Eight Episodes

Filming begins on February 28.

Image via Marvel Studios

Is it still 18 episodes for the two parts, or am I wrong?
SCARDAPANE: At this point, it will be a nine-episode first season. We start shooting an eight-episode second season on Friday, and the future is unwritten. I don’t know if the story necessarily ends at the end of the second season. I think the future’s unwritten.
AMANAT: But look at it as part one and part two for both seasons.
Once it was being reworked, how much of those first nine episodes were being thought of as, “Ultimately, we’re going towards 18 episodes,” whatever the number is, “and this is the story we’re telling,” and how much is it sort of at the end of part one, a chapter is closed, and we’re opening a new chapter?
SCARDAPANE: So when I came in and put together the overview of what the first season was going to be, the second season was implied. They are the absolute flip side to each other, which you’ll see. Without giving too much away, at the very end of the last episode of this season, you essentially see a lot of cards being put out on a table, and Season 2 is those cards going into play vigorously and perhaps viciously.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Writers Were “Shocked” by the Limits They Could Push

“Let’s ask for forgiveness later.”

Image via Marvel Studios

One of the things that I think fans were nervous about was whether this series would be violent. What’s going to happen with Disney+? Without spoiling anything, the first two episodes, you guys don’t pull any punches. Was there any pushback? I don’t want to say too much. I’m just saying that I was very happy. What was it like behind the scenes trying to push that through?
SCARDAPANE: I was shocked. As somebody who worked on The Punisher, as somebody who works in this sandbox, there was never, “Hey, back it off.” It was always like, “Does it make sense? Is it good story?” And getting a chance to work with [second unit director] Phil Silvera, who I’m a huge fanboy for, building these action sequences, making them eye-popping, making them real, making them gritty, making them hurt, Disney+ and Marvel never said, “Pull back.”
AMANAT: I have to say, Kevin Feige, Lou D’Esposito and Brad Winderbaum, who are the heads of the studio, very much were like, “Go for it. The bloodier, the better, 100%.” From the beginning, even in the old iteration of the show, we have a couple of sequences in there, shot by Dave McCumber, our other stunt coordinator, and there are some crazy things that happen, which you will see soon, hopefully. He shot the end of Episode 2, actually. That was in the old material. So, it was always the intention. It was a bit of like, “Let’s ask for forgiveness later from our big bosses.” But yeah, they were very supportive.

Related

Jon Bernthal’s Punisher Is “A Bull in a China Shop” in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’

“Frank’s appearances are just insane…”

SCARDAPANE: And I’m definitely the wrong person to say, “Just go for it.”
AMANAT: There’s some crazy stuff that he does multiple times in Episodes 8 and 9 that I just love.
SCARDAPANE: There are a lot of nods to the fans. There are action moments in the books that we’ve been able to recreate, and I won’t say much more than that.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, Episodes 1 and 2 premiere on Disney+ on March 4, with subsequent episodes dropping every Tuesday.

Daredevil: Born Again

Release Date

March 4, 2025

Showrunner

Chris Ord

Writers

Chris Ord

Franchise(s)

Daredevil, Marvel Cinematic Universe