Things just seem to be going from bad to worse for the Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV shows. For the most part, some of the recent MCU TV shows have been poorly received by fans and critics who griped about the inconsistent tone of the episodes, half-finished scripts and poor special effects. The MCU TV shows hit their lowest point with Secret Invasion, which should have been a lot better but instead turned out to be the worst MCU presentations. There have been a lot of reports and rumors about how Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is going out of his way to right the ship with the MCU. This has led to substantial delays and cancellation of projects. But the news last week that the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again has been essentially scrapped created a lot of concern for fans.
Daredevil: Born Again has been one of the most anticipated MCU projects since it brought back Charlie Cox as the title character. He won so much acclaim for his performance as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the Netflix TV series Daredevil, which was about a blind superhero with enhanced senses fighting crime in Manhattan. That series ran for three seasons and was considered to be among the greatest superhero TV shows based on a Marvel Comics charater. Fans wondered if the TV show would ever be revived and saw reason to hope when Cox reprised his role in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home and the TV show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Naturally, many were excited when Kevin Feige announced that a new Daredevil TV show was being produced by Marvel Studios.
Not a lot was known about Daredevil: Born Again other than aside from Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio would reprise his role as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin, the brutal crime lord that rules New York’s criminal society. Supposedly, the overall plot had to do with the consequences of Fisk being elected as the mayor of New York. But there were some aspects about the show that put off fans, namely that Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll would not return to play their beloved characters Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. In fact, there have been leaks that both characters were killed off in Daredevil: Born Again. Also, there seemed to be an effort by the executives to not associate it with the Netflix series. This did not make sense since Daredevil was so revered and it was only logical to continue that show instead of doing a reboot given that the same lead actor was returning.
Production came to a halt with the TV show due to the writer and actors strikes, which has crippled film and TV productions this year. At the onset of the strike only a few episodes had been completed and it was supposed to have an eighteen-episode run.
Marvel Studios has been having issues with the quality of many of their projects, especially the TV shows, and this resulted in diminishing returns. As we all know, Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige had been stretched very thin by mandates by Disney to produce more product and there are only so many resources and time available to consistently produce quality products. This is how we got poorly received films and TV shows like Secret Invasion, Eternals and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Naturally, this has forced Marvel Studios to take a hard look at their current and upcoming projects and honestly assess them.
This assessment and the realization that the market was being flooded with too many films and TV shows have led to delayed releases for their projects. In some cases, projects have either been scrapped or will undergo significant revisions. Unfortunately, this included Daredevil: Born Again.
According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, Kevin Feige reviewed what had been filmed with the new Daredevil TV show and admitted that it was not working. It was turning out to be a procedural lawyer show that de-emphasized Daredevil and Matt Murdock did not even don the Daredevil suit until the fourth episode. This has led to the dismissal of the writers and directors and the show is now back to square one.
But Daredevil: born Again is not the only casualty. It has been rumored that a planned TV show, Visionquest, based on the android hero, the Vision, has been cancelled. Echo, which has been completed and feature Daredevil, keeps being delayed because it’s supposedly not well done and Marvel Studios is trying to fix it through editing. Agatha: Darkhold Diaries also seems to be a victim of constant retinkering given that the TV show based on the witch Agatha Harkness has had so many title changes. Ironheart, has been completed for some time, yet there isn’t any clear indication of when it will stream on Disney+. Rumors for upcoming MCU projects featuring Nova, Okoye and the Silver Surfer have stopped giving the impression that they also have been scrapped.
On the one hand this implosion of MCU TV shows is cause for concern given the high reputation Marvel Studios has with fans and most critics (excepting snobs like Martin Scorsese). Some panicking fans will use this situation to declare that superhero fatigue is upon us. But that is not necessarily so. The reason for diminishing returns in metrics and box office returns is due to diminished and inferior product that is not up to par with past MCU projects. If a film or TV show is great, people will seek it out, for the most part. Look at how well some recents films and TV shows performed. These include Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, WandaVision, Loki, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Werewolf By Night. Right now, Loki, which began its second season a couple of weeks ago is removing the sting of the dismal Secret Invasion. However, it’s early for the show and it could wind up becoming an uneven disappointment. Another problem for Marvel Studios is that they do not have a lot of experience creating TV shows and it can be seen with their finished products. Most of them seem like overlong films instead of TV shows that are a different medium with a distinct method of storytelling.
On the other hand, these delays, cancellations and retoolings are a sign that Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios have acknowledged that things are not working for their projects. It is far better to course correct now with Daredevil and be willing to go back to the drawing board. Otherwise, can anyone imagine what would happen if Daredevil: Born Again turns out to be another Secret Invasion? One thing Marvel Studios should do is bring back the folks who were behind Daredevil like Drew Goddard. He and the other creatives behind Daredevil knew how to handle the character and his world, and it would reassure fans. Anyway, with less projects to deal with, Marvel Studios now has more bandwidth to ensure that they create superior films and TV shows that will be up to their usual high standards. So, while we may have to wait longer to see the full return of Daredevil, we can be comforted knowing that it will be worth the wait.
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There is just too much lack of focus in the MCU.
The whole Thanos Saga, or whatever. We had like, half a dozen actually important heroes, maybe twice as many side kick level heroes.
Since Thanos, it feels like he have gotten like 20-30 NEW main tier heroes, including elevating some previous “sidekick tier” heroes. Plus the left over others from the whole proginal saga.
I think a lot of the appeal of the old MCU was that it was “Comic Books without the comics.”
You didn’t have to follow 1000 things each with their own individual crossover stories and maybe a secret over arching plot on a larger crossover. In the MCU, each individual film felt pretty singular, at worst running along with the main hero of the film, and then occasionally there was a big crossover moment.
Also Disney is pushing all these weird cost curring shenanigans that are only making this worse. Like how Daredevil was a “reboot” to get out of contract bumps that the show workers got after X seasons/episodes.
Plus they seem to keep using the whole “multiverse” nonsense to just “do whatever because it may be another universe.”
Personally, it also rubs me real bad that Disney’s previous “excuse” for ignoring the TV shows (Defenders, Agents, Cloak and Dagger, Runaways) was something stupid like, “We don’t want people to feel required to watch the shows to make sense of things.” But now its all, “Here, have a new series constantly, and each one explocitly ties to a movie!”
Its so blatantly transparent they just didn’t want to promote competing products (Netflix, etc).
You hit the nail on the head with what has been going wrong with the MCU lately. After the Infinity Saga ended, it feels as if Marvel Studios was unsure what to do next and just threw up the Multiverse as a catch-all, but the problem is that there doesn’t seem to be a goal or arc that would culminate with Secret Wars.
The second Doctor Strange film did introduce the idea of incursions and how they threaten worlds but they have not really followed up on that and that is a recurring problem with the MCU lately.
Many concepts and characters have been introduced but there has been little follow up or any indications of follow ups. For example, what is going on with Hercules, the Eternals or Black Knight? They were either introduced in post-credit scenes or had some unanswered storylines and Marvel Studios has not bothered to update us about them.
To help sell the threat of Kang or follow up with the new characters, they should have them appear if only briefly in each new film or TV show to at least keep them fresh in our minds.
But for now, cutting back on content to give Marvel Studios time to properly decide and plan on a direction is for the best.
Oh yeah, the villain part is almost worse.
We have what, the, whatever they were in Eternals, the Celetials?
Kang, who feels kind of lame honestly. Evil Tony Stark from the future basically.
That thing Shang Chi was dealing with.
This doesn’t even get into the teased idea of Galactus or Doom. Heck on the heroes sideor the whole F4 and Xmen that are supposedly coming. We already have too many heros, lets drop in the Xmen and 500 mutants!
That is another problem going on with Marvel. With Iron Man and Captain America gone they don’t have any real lead heroes to anchor the MCU. Sure their is Spider-Man but since Sony has the film rights to him it would be foolish to focus solely on him. We have a replacement for Cap but Marvel Studios failed to capitalize on this. While he will have his own film next year he should have had cameos in the meantime. Thor and Hulk were viable replacements but they were either unused or ruined.
It is a great shame, however I think the original Netflix show worked so well because it was completely separate from the MCU. DD is a great character, so hopefully he will resurface again at some point, perhaps he’ll even get his own solo movie. Perhaps that would be a better way to go?
There were a few clues that the Netflix shows, especially Daredevil, had some connection with the MCU and it was enough. You did not have to bring in actors from the films or name drop incidents like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. because the isolated nature of the Netflix shows gave the impression that they were part of the MCU but not front and center.
DD is supposed to appear in Echo, hopefully any scenes with him won’t be edited out during the tinkering with Echo (it’s been rumored that based on negative reactions, the show’s episodes will be severely cut down). And DD and Cox are so popular that I’m sure they will prioritize making the best show possible.
I couldn’t agree more. I also worry the MCU is now lacking an overarching vision. Thanos became the endgame (ha! I didn’t even intend that pun!) with the bonus scene in 2012’s ‘The Avengers.’ Then they tailored their story to that goal. But now the MCU has grown so large and they feel a bit directionless. I remember Feige saying the next phase of the MCU, after Thanos, was going to be cosmically-centered. The GOTG and Captain Marvel were going to be center but then everything happened with James Gunn and ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ made allllllll the money and all of a sudden we’re in the middle of a multiverse saga. But no two projects the MCU’s done with the multiverse present it in the same way! And that’s frustrating.
Hopefully this pause allows them to refocus on their overarching narratives as well as the tonal experience of their shows and movies. I’d like to see the, either step away from “everything connecting” or take the time to make a connective thread that fits like The Infinity Saga did.
I think taking the time to make a connective thread would be less intimidating for general audiences or casual fans. It also would be easier to make any corrections with few noticing them. Otherwise Marvel Studios will put out projects like Ahsoka which while good appealed to fans of Star Wars Rebels and forgot about general audiences. Right now they are dangerously close to doing that.
I have hit Marvel fatigue. Too much was put out in an inconsistenat manner. They have featured characters I don’t care about, and then put DD on hold? I think they need to steamline the francise, its too bloated.
Agree! They are focusing too much on lower tier, lesser known characters. While this worked with GOTG and Ant-Man it was because of the talent involved. Seriously does anyone want to see an Ironheart TV show? She isn’t even liked in the comics!
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