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With the release of Daredevil: Born Again less than two weeks away as we type these words, the anticipation for what’s to come is reaching new heights — you did see the new TV spot teasing just how violent the new show’s going to be, right? — it’s worth pausing for a second and wondering: what about the Born Again that audiences didn’t get?

After all, the show was initially announced in July 2022 with an 18-episode first season, with production beginning early the next year… only for production to halt mid-shoot because of the WGA strike and Marvel to substantially overhaul the show, letting go both the directors and writers from the series in the process as the studio decided what it had “wasn’t working.”

We’ll get to see what happened when Marvel fixed the show very soon, but what about the earlier version didn’t work? According to Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane — brought on to right the boat — the earlier version of the show seemed to be less about Daredevil as a character, and more about… Matt Murdock’s day job?

That first version of Daredevil: Born Again, Scardapane told Empire magazine, was "a straight-ahead legal procedural […] mixed in with the dilemmas of Matt Murdock. Daredevil was almost an ingredient. It was much less the world we knew, and more trying to blaze a new trail — but in doing so, they'd forgotten some things that really were necessary to the engine of the story."

Two thoughts:

1. There’s 100% a great legal procedural to be done inside the MCU, but arguably not one where the audience would rather spend the entire legal proceedings thinking, “Can we just get the lawyer out of the courtroom and into his costume please?” It’s a show where Matt Murdock should be a guest-star, not the main character.
2. This show, coming on the heels of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law brings to mind the question, “Who at Marvel Studios really likes legal shows that much?” (Ironically, She-Hulk would have been much better as a legal procedural, but that show was too busy trying to be three different things at any one time to manage it.)

Daredevil: Born Again debuts March 4 on Disney+. There might be some legal stuff in it, but thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the focus.

Fear not, we have the essentials when it comes to Marvel's Daredevil. From the best Daredevil stories of all time, to a guide to watching Daredevil, a comprehensive guide to Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+, Marvel's Daredevil actors, ranked from Charlie Cox to Ben Affleck and even Rex Smith, how Frank Miller accidentally killed a Daredevil cartoon (and Marvel killed a book to avoid pissing him off), and even that time we caught Daredevil actor Charlie Cox sneaking into New York Comic Con as Bluey.