‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Showrunner Comments on Improvements in Tone Compared to the Original Show: No More Navel-Gazing Heroes
Netflix canceled ‘Daredevil’ despite the success of its third season because the streaming giant decided to end its partnership with Marvel. This was part of a larger shift, as Disney (Marvel’s parent company) was preparing to launch its own streaming service, Disney+, and wanted control of its Marvel content.
Though ‘Daredevil’ was the most popular Marvel/Netflix show, the decision seemed to be part of Netflix’s move to phase out Marvel projects entirely, including ‘Luke Cage,’ ‘Iron Fist,’ and eventually ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘The Punisher.’
Daredevil got a second chance with the revival ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ and after the creative reboot that the show underwent, its tone is more similar to the original show than ever.
Still, the ‘Born Again’ showrunner Dario Scardapane revealed that not all was good when it comes to the original show, and despite trying to follow it faithfully some changes had to be made:
Scardapane says the new series will focus more on action and fun moments with the characters, moving away from the slower, dialogue-heavy style of the Netflix version. While he acknowledges the original show had great moments, he felt it sometimes overused long conversations about heroism.
His goal is to create a faster-paced, more dynamic series where the characters take action rather than just talk.
There is more fun in the moments with these characters and a lot less navel-gazing than before. The earlier show, at its best, was fantastic. At its worst, it was two characters in a room talking about what a hero is. I felt that had been done. I’m not taking swipes. I just didn’t want to hear characters grousing about their lot in life. I wanted to see them doing things.
He explains that ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ will have a faster pace, with more dynamic action sequences, unlike the slower, longer scenes from ‘The Punisher.’ He says the new show has a different tone, leaning more into a New York crime story inspired by classics like ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘King of New York,’ compared to the noir style of Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’. He adds that while the new show is still dark, it has a broader scope and faster pace that Netflix couldn’t achieve with its more cinematic approach.
One of our edicts was longer scenes. You had these long five-page scenes of characters hashing it out in order to make space between these massive action sequences. The way stuff has evolved since then, we’re able to do big action sequences at a lot more pace.
I really feel that Netflix’s Daredevil, which I know in my blood, was much more noir, and this show is more New York crime story. It has elements of The Sopranos and King Of New York. There’s a feeling for those classic ’90s crime tales. It has a pace and a scope that, for a lot of reasons, Netflix wasn’t able to do. They were very dark, cinematically, not necessarily story-wise, although there were some dark elements. We’re much darker.
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