Why Marvel Cut Down ‘Daredevil: Born Again’s’ Episode Count – Exec Explains

The journey of Daredevil: Born Again has been anything but smooth. Development started in 2022, with Matt Corman and Chris Ord as the head writers and executive producers for the Disney+ reboot.

Kevin Feige and Chris Gary were also involved as producers early on. However, during the SAG-AFTRA strike, Marvel took the chance to review the show’s progress, and that’s when problems surfaced.

The show went through a major overhaul after executives felt the original direction by Matt Corman and Chris Ord didn’t work, as it strayed too far from the tone of the Netflix series and took too long to show Daredevil in costume.

The writers and directors were replaced, with Punisher writer Dario Scardapane brought in as showrunner and Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as new directors. The series was reworked to have a darker, more serialized tone like the Netflix version, keeping some of the pre-strike footage but adding new scenes.

The original 18-episode plan was scaled back, with only six episodes filmed before mid-2024. Marvel Studios and the cast supported the new direction, which aimed to be a fresh start while respecting the original series.

Charlie Cox had called the original 18-episode run a “huge undertaking,” explaining that Matt Murdock’s role as a lawyer provided plenty of story opportunities, which justified the extended length. However, the reboot will now have a total of nine episodes for its first season. Marvel’s Brad Winderbaum recently explained on the Phase Hero podcast why they decided to cut the episode count in half.

Our first conceit for Daredevil was let’s try a longer format. Let’s take this character and this world of New York City and build an ensemble. Then we learned a lot of lessons doing it that way.

So, because of a number of reasons, including the shutdowns due to the strikes, we were able to reassess the episodes and see what we had. It’s just the best nine episodes. It feels like it is a great kind of first season

What Corman and Ord originally came up with clearly wasn’t working, and it makes sense that Daredevil didn’t wear his costume until later in the series, given the original episode count. Thankfully, the studio chose to prioritize quality over quantity.

With a shorter episode count, the reboot’s first season will be much more like the Netflix version in tone and style. Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Brad Winderbaum have all confirmed that it will be dark, intense, and full of action. Daredevil: Born Again will premiere on Disney+ on March 4, 2025. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

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