Steven DeKnight, who served as the showrunner on the first season of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” recently took to social media to criticize Disney for running a scam with its upcoming reboot series “Daredevil: Born Again” (via Entertainment Weekly). The 18-episode series features the returns of Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio and Jon Bernthal, who starred on the original Netflix series as Daredevil, Kingpin and Punisher, respectively.
“It’s an old Disney scam where they slightly rename a series to reset contract terms back to first season,” DeKnight wrote on X/Twitter. “Needs to be addressed by all the guilds/unions and crushed!”
“From what I understand, I’m not going to see a penny from ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ because they added the ‘Born Again’ and can claim it’s a completely different show,” he explained. “You know, with the exact same two lead actors (who I love!) playing Daredevil and Fisk.”
DeKnight stressed that he is excited to watch “Born Again,” but he still thinks it’s wrong that Disney can just give the show a new name so that, contractually, it is not a continuation of the Netflix series despite sharing the same characters.
“To be clear, I can’t wait to see Charlie Cox and the amazing Cincent D’Onofrio reprise their iconic roles,” DeKnight wrote. “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.”
“Daredevil: Born Again” was set to debut on Disney+ in spring 2024, but production on the show was indefinitely paused in June amid the WGA strike. The show has remained out of production through the SAG-AFTRA strikes. Both strikes remain ongoing in Hollywood. Matt Corman and Chris Ord are serving as showrunners of the new series.