Megastudio Marvel are starting over with their Daredevil TV series and are looking to completely overhaul their approach to TV. That’s probably for the best.
The studio has been dominating the multiplexes and the box office, but arguably, hasn’t quite managed to conquer the smaller screen. Marvel’s TV shows have been very hit and miss; only Loki has managed to get itself renewed for a second season, which started streaming last week.
Now, Marvel is looking to change this up a little. After hitting an all-time low with Secret Invasion, the lowest rated Marvel project to date, Kevin Feige and co. are learning from their mistakes.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming Daredevil series is starting almost completely from the beginning. The series had begun filming when the writers’ strike hit, but Feige and Marvel execs are reportedly not happy with the results so far and are going back to the drawing board.
Credit: Marvel Studios / Disney+
According to reports, the titular superhero, also known as lawyer Matt Murdock, didn’t even get into his superhero costume until episode 4 and Marvel simply can’t have that. A few weeks ago, Marvel let go head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and is now looking for new writers and directors for the series, which is confirmed for a two-season run.
“We’re trying to marry the Marvel culture with the traditional television culture,” says Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of streaming, television and animation. “It comes down to, ‘How can we tell stories in television that honor what’s so great about the source material?’”
Marvel has gone all in on their TV stuff, not producing pilots and also not having showrunners. Like with Loki and Moon Knight, they tend to hire leading directors, who will direct most (but not all!) episodes and slightly oversee things. It’s not been working out very well.
“We need executives that are dedicated to this medium, that are going to focus on streaming, focus on television,” says Winderbaum, “because they are two different forms.”
The studio will now employ showrunners who will script pilots for their shows as well as show bibles for each show, giving them much needed direction and hopefully, stability. Marvel is eventually hoping it could find its The Mandalorian: a multi-season juggernaut that can showcase the best of the studio’s capabilites on the small screen and be a hit with audiences. It also wouldn’t hurt to have something with endless merchandising opportunities.
It seems that Marvel has been approaching its TV shows like it does its movies; go fast and fix things in post if you need to. Perhaps Marvel has now learned its lesson and we can look forward to some actually decent TV from the megastudio.
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