Netflix’s Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight has some choice words about Marvel’s new Daredevil: Born Again reboot.
Steven DeKnight, showrunner of the first season of original Netflix Daredevil series, has called out Marvel for how they’ve handled the upcoming superhero reboot, calling it an “old Disney scam” that hurts the workers. He also criticised Marvel calling it a straight-up reboot under the circumstances.
Here’s a little background information on the whole situation before we get to the meat of the story. Say what you want about the quality of Netflix’s continuous stream of original shows and films, but Daredevil is one of the best things to come out of the streaming service’s large catalogue of content.
Daredevil was the first ever Marvel TV show that was part of the larger Cinematic Universe and while the quality of Marvel’s later efforts has varied wildly, Daredevil remains an excellent piece of telly.
Daredevil ran for three seasons and after all of MCU’s shows and films moved to Disney+, Netflix removed the series in March 2022. Later that year, a reboot was announced. Titled, Daredevil: Born Again, the series was expected to be arriving on Disney+ in early 2024 but has recently been removed from Marvel’s release calendar, leaving the release date in a limbo of sorts.
Now, DeKnight recently took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice his opinion on the new show and Marvel’s tactics.
He does. It’s an old Disney scam where they slightly rename a series to reset contract terms back to first season. Needs to be addressed by all the guilds/unions and crushed! https://t.co/Ttj4A3tnE4
— Steven DeKnight (@stevendeknight) September 18, 2023
DeKnight was replying to an IATSE union member called Thomas. IATSE looks after workers in the film, TV and stage industries and Thomas had been tweeting about working on Marvel’s TV shows. According to him, workers on the shows would only get full vacation pay once the shows reached season 3.
Thomas was also wondering if DeKnight was aware that the contract terms on the new reboot reverted back to season one terms, meaning crew aren’t eligible for full vacation pay.
DeKnight replied and said it was “an old Disney scam where they slightly rename a series to reset contract terms back to first season.”
Needless to say that contracts are a hot topic in Hollywood currently, due to the on-going strikes. DeKnight also later clarified he wasn’t criticising the rebooting of the show itself, but simply calling it a reboot when Charlie Cox was returning to his well-established role.
DeKnight also called for guilds and unions to address it. DeKnight later tweeted: “To be clear, I can’t wait to see Charlie Cox and the amazing @VincentDonofrio reprise their iconic rolls. But to claim this is a complete reboot and you don’t have to pay the original creatives is some corporate shenanigans, to say the least.”
As much as we want to see Daredevil back on the small screen again, after his brief appearance in She-Hulk, the whole thing does seem very worrying. The news arrives after Marvel in-house VFX workers have voted to unionise and Nia DaCosta described her experience on shooting The Marvels as, shall we say, less than positive.
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