Daredevil: Born Again, the upcoming soft-reboot of Netflix and Marvel's Daredevil series, will be going after the equivalent of television's R rating, according to an industry insider.
"Is Daredevil gonna be TV-MA?" a fan on Twitter asked of industry insider Daniel Ricthman. Richtman, a proven source of reliable leaks, gave a simple, one-word reply: "Likely." This revelation should please fans of the original show. The former Daredevil series stands out from typical Marvel fare with its gritty, realistic depiction of violence and the physical and emotional toll being Daredevil puts on Matt Murdock, the man behind the mask. A TV-MA rating should allow the showrunners to push Daredevil: Born Again even further.
The fan also asked Richtman if other upcoming Marvel Studios projects like Echo, Thunderbolts, Blade, or Agatha: Coven of Chaos would have similar ratings (TV-MA for TV shows and an R rating for movies), to which Richtman gave another succinct answer: "No." However, Disney CEO Bob Chapek recently expressed his desire to expand the Disney brand into more mature content, so Daredevil: Born Again may actually signal the beginning of a new trend for Marvel and Disney. "I want to respect what this brand is," Chapek said. "But at the same time, I know that we may be even more precious about what is 'Disney' than the consumer base is. If the consumer base has more elasticity, we probably ought to listen to our audience, which means we have more degrees of freedom than we probably thought."
Disney+ Is Slowing Adding More Mature Content
In another sign of changing attitudes, Disney+ recently added its first two R-rated films to the platform: Deadpool and Logan. Deadpool and Deadpool 2 were already famous for pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in a Marvel blockbuster, and no doubt the massive success of those films helped convince the studios to continue producing content that would appeal to that audience. Ryan Reynolds, ever the joker, quipped that certain Disney classics like Old Yeller, Bambi and The Lion King should "already be rated R for irreversible trauma."
The return of actor Charlie Cox's Daredevil to Netflix was largely thanks to the fan-led "Save Daredevil" campaign on social media. Ever since Daredevil was canceled in 2018, dedicated fans have lobbied Marvel to bring back Cox as New York City's most famous blind brawler. Cox recently expressed just how much the campaign helped him and how thankful he is for that, saying, "Whatever happens to my career going forward from this point on, I owe most of it to the "Save Daredevil" campaign."
Daredevil: Born Again is set to premiere on Disney+ in Spring 2024 and will run for 18 episodes.
Source: Twitter