Daredevil: Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane has doubled down on comments he made last month alongside lead actor Charlie Cox about the upcoming Disney+ Daredevil series continuing the dark ambiance of the Netflix one. In fact, Scardapane thinks a comparison can be made to the recently acclaimed The Penguin series starring Colin Farrell, namely that it will be “even more grounded” than DC’s hit HBO series.
“It’s really strange. You work in a vacuum and then something else comes out and you go, ‘Oh, wow’. I would say in many ways The Penguin is our direct competition,” Scardapane told SFX Magazine. “However, we’re even more grounded, even less stylized, even more rooted in the here and now. I loved Penguin. We’re a little faster, meaner, cleaner in our storytelling.”
Scardapane reiterated that Daredevil: Born Again won’t be kiddified despite being on Disney+.
“It has a pace and a scope that, for a lot of reasons, Netflix wasn’t able to do,” Scardapane continued.”They were very dark cinematically, not necessarily story-wise, although there were some dark elements. We’re much darker. This is as far as a Disney Plus show has ever gone.”
Scardapane also noted that one of his nitpicks with the Netflix Daredevil series was its pacing, particularly prolonged conversations between action scenes, something which he believes Born Again will rectify.
“You had these long five-page scenes of characters hashing it out in order to make space between these massive action sequences. The way stuff has evolved since then, we’re able to do big action sequences at a lot more pace,” he said.
He added, “The earlier show, at its best, was fantastic. At its worst, it was two characters in a room talking about what a hero is,” he explained. “I felt that had been done. I’m not taking swipes. I just didn’t want to hear characters grousing about their lot in life. I wanted to see them doing things.”
Daredevil: Born Again will take place five years after the Netflix series and sees Daredevil’s arch-nemesis, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) running for mayor of New York City, a story beat that mirrors one from a Marvel Comics run in 2017 (written by Charles Soule and Christos Gage, with art by Ron Garney and Stefano Landin). Although the Mayor Fisk storyline was lauded by both fans and critics alike, D’Onofrio said that the MCU storyline won’t mirror the comic book storyline exactly and that fans should “expect the unexpected” when it comes to Born Again.
“Anything on our show is, nine out of 10 times, leading to something that’s even bigger and crazier,” D’Onofrio told Entertainment Weekly. “For Fisk, this journey is a path to more control.”
Daredevil: Born Again will be available for streaming on Disney+ on March 4th.
