Credit: Marvel Studios, edited by ITMAn important Marvel Studios executive says the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again series will retcon some key aspects of its main characters, changing them to push a political narrative.
Daredevil: Born Again is one of the more troubled Marvel Cinematic Universe projects in recent years, which is saying a lot. The MCU has been struggling since Avengers: Endgame (2019) became the fastest movie to ever gross a billion dollars and closed out the Infinity Sage; that meant that the franchise also lost huge stars and recognizable heroes like Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Evans (Captain America), and Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow).
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Since then, the MCU has been trying to regain its footing at both the box office and with critics. It has also had a hard time generating fan interest in new heroes like She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) and the Eternals, so it makes sense that Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel Studios creative team would go back to a fan-favorite like the Charlie Cox version of Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil.
Charlie Cox debuted as the Man Without Fear in the 2015 Netflix Daredevil series, which immediately met critical acclaim and huge viewership. Daredevil largely focused on the main character’s conflicts with Wilson Fisk, AKA the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), while crossing over with various other street-based superheroes like Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and, eventually, a mystical ninja cult.
In more recent years, Matt Murdock has appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Kingpin appeared in Hawkeye and Echo. Both actors are set to reprise their roles in Daredevil: Born Again, but the series has been repeatedly retooled, rewritten, and recast since it was first announced in 2022.
Now, we have gotten some hints about what all of the rewrites have been about: retcons. In a recent episode of the Official Marvel Podcast, Marvel Studios Head of TV and Streaming Brad Winderbaum revealed that both Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk had been “changed” since their first appearances and seemingly confirmed rumors of a political plot for the new show.
Brad Winderbaum spent his time on the podcast hyping up new Disney+ series like Agatha All Along and Eyes of Wakanda, but especially focused on Daredevil: Born Again, saying:
“Daredevil is incredible. It’s similar in some ways to X-Men ’97, because it’s reviving something that the fans love, but it is taking it in a new direction. These characters have matured. The universe is different than it was. Things have changed. Society’s changed.”
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Interestingly, Brad Winderbaum focused even more on the “change” aspect of retconning the characters and their histories, saying, “Matt and Wilson have changed, and their characters are gonna collide in ways we’ve never seen before. It’s no longer enough to try and murder each other. There’s a whole game of politics at play.”
This strongly suggests that the series will focus on adapting a Marvel Comics storyline in which Wilson Fisk runs for mayor of New York City and wins, forcing a huge change in the dynamic between him and Matt Murdock. it will be interesting to see how the Kingpin’s political run will be affected by his history of incarceration and criminal charges in the original Netflix series.
In theory, such charges could make it difficult or impossible for him to run for public office in the real world, but who knows what the rules are in the MCU?
Both Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk have appeared to be retconned in the MCU in numerous ways, including different costumes and possibly even superpowers. But it may be that the biggest change of all will be in politics.
How much MCU retconning is too much?