Don’t Cry Because Daredevil Is Over, Smile Because It Happened

Daredevil is set to end for a second time with its upcoming third season of Born Again, disappointing fans who hoped it would continue on Disney+.

The Charlie Cox-led show has been through a lot. Daredevil’s been cancelled, rebooted, retooled, revived and nearly reinvented from scratch, yet he’s still been the focus of six seasons of pretty damn good TV, and that ain’t bad!

When Daredevil first hit Netflix in 2015, it was a breath of fresh air. Marvel suddenly seemed open to experimenting with serialized adult television, tapping creatives like Drew Goddard and Steven S. DeKnight, who both had experience working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel’s darker storylines, to figure out how to make blind lawyer-turned-vigilante Matt Murdock must-see TV, and they succeeded.

Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio were excellent casting choices to play Murdock and Wilson Fisk. D’Onofrio’s Kingpin made for an excellent foil, with both characters mostly soft-spoken but capable of eye-watering brutality. Scenes with Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page and Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson complemented all the bloody fights and looming threats, bringing Murdock back to basics when he pushed too hard (or not hard enough).

The Marvel-Netflix collaboration had quite the cultural impact, too. Soon, Daredevil was joined by Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Punisher, and Iron Fist as Marvel expanded its street-level universe, but interest seemed to be declining, and Disney planned to launch its own streaming service. As a result, Daredevil’s days were numbered. Yet when Netflix eventually canceled the show in November 2018, a huge fan campaign got underway. “Save Daredevil” kept the pressure on, making sure Marvel and Disney understood there was still an audience that longed to see him return to their screens.

Meanwhile, other adult superhero shows made their own cultural impact, earning critical acclaim and pushing the envelope even further. The likes of The Boys, Watchmen and Doom Patrol started to make Daredevil seem a little quaint in comparison, so when Marvel finally announced Born Again, this time as more of a procedural show with a much lighter tone, their timing and approach were all wrong. The series soon needed a major overhaul. Punisher writer Dario Scardapane, along with Loki directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, were brought in to make the show darker again and more connected to the Netflix era. Marvel didn’t back down on giving us more Daredevil as it did with the recent Wonder Man; it reassessed.

After all that hubbub, we were lucky enough to get two seasons of Born Again, with a third and final run heading to Disney+ next year. Getting three bonus seasons of a show that was already canceled once is quite the result. Tell fans of Firefly, 1899, Mindhunter, or Freaks and Geeks that you’re upset about Daredevil ending after six seasons, and they probably won’t be able to conceal their feelings.

Unlike those shows, Daredevil was actually born again. It not only brought back characters from the Netflix era, but the same actors played them. Marvel even went so far as to bring Cox’s Murdock into the MCU with an appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the Defenders will get another chance to shine in Born Again season 3 after arguably flopping in their own limited series team-up on Netflix.

Everyone’s entitled to feel their feelings about Born Again’s cancellation, but for what it’s worth, this is likely to be just the end of another chapter in Matt Murdock’s story. Marvel surely knows Born Again hasn’t been a streaming hit, but that doesn’t mean it’s done with the character. Fans will always be happy to see Daredevil, and he could return in future shows and movies. There’s a passionate fan base out there, one that spent years campaigning relentlessly just to see him again.

Those people won’t just simply go away. They were there when Daredevil rolled out across two different platforms, they were there when creatives came and went behind the scenes, and they’ll be there when the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen returns. One day, Daredevil will be reborn again. Meanwhile, there are six seasons of Marvel television to revisit whenever we want. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.