Kingpin actor asks for “trust” as Disney’s new Daredevil show resets itself

Yesterday, we learned that Marvel Studios was going back to the drawing board on Daredevil: Born Again, a continuation of the Netflix Daredevil show starring Charlie Cox as blind lawyer/superhero Matt Murdock. Although we don’t have all the details, word was that the show was turning into more of a legal procedural series not consistent with the action drama fans enjoyed on Netflix. And as intrigued as I am by the idea of “Marvel does Law & Order,” I can see why Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige might want to retool things.

To that end, Feige broke with writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and is now looking for new scribes to revamp the series. Looking in from the outside, this all appears pretty chaotic, and fans would be forgiven for fearing that Daredevil: Born Again was in trouble. However, star Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays the iconic villain Kingpin, is out here on X, née Twitter, reassuring people.

The exchange began when a user retweeted (or reposted, now) an old tweet from D’Onofrio where the actor talked about how “excited” he was for Daredevil: Born Again. “Well now this aged poorly,” the user said. D’Onofrio disagreed:

"Unless you really know what’s going there’s a chance you could be wrong about this statement. We are going to bring forward the best series we can. One we can be proud of. Have some trust my freind, trust."

Is it bad form to point out that D’Onofrio misspelled the word “friend”? Probably.

Anyway, D’Onofrio continued to do some damage control, advising us that changing things behind the scenes isn’t as unusual as it seems:

"Every cool project I’ve been involved with has evolved constantly during pre- production, production and post. It’s just reported on these days as if it’s big news. It’s not. It’s simple a bunch of creatives doing their best to get it right. It’s a constant in this business. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Frankly I’d be worried if we were settling for less."

Daredevil: Born Again getting born again, precipitates changes at Marvel Studios

D’Onofrio is right, of course, that things change behind the scenes of shows and movies all the time. Retooling is a thing that happens. For instance, the original pilot episode of Game of Thrones was so bad that HBO had to redo pretty much everything. And that show went on to become one of the biggest, most beloved hits of the 2010s.

That said, it sounds like Marvel’s problems go beyond just Daredevil. Other shows, most recently Secret Invasion, have underperformed both critically and commercially, to the point where the studio is considering revamping the way it makes TV in general. Proposed fixes include:

• Hiring showrunners, which is apparently not something the Marvel TV shows previously had.
• Making pilot episodes rather than ordering things straight to series. The producers of Daredevil: Born Again had made several episodes before Marvel decided it wanted to go in a different direction.
• Creating TV shows that can be enjoyed on their own rather than requiring fans to also watch other miniseries or movies.

Basically, Disney wants to make TV shows more like how TV shows have always been made, and less like they’ve been trying it for the past few years. Do we think this will improve Marvel’s output? Make it worse? Or we can just act on D’Onofrio’s advice and have some trust.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels