“We’re even more grounded, even less stylized” – Look out, The Penguin, because it sounds like Daredevil: Born Again is coming for your realistic comic book story throne
Last year’s The Penguin was obviously a big hit, but now it looks like Daredevil: Born Again will be attempting to take some of that “grounded” limelight.
There’s a bit of an obsession with making superhero stories gritty and realistic, despite them being one of the campiest mediums around. It’s alright once in a while, but it feels like a weird attempt at legitimising itself when it really doesn’t need to. Soon we’ll have Daredevil back on our screens with his upcoming Disney Plus series Born Again, and it seems like its showrunner Dario Scardapane has entered it into a p**sing contest with DC’s The Penguin to see who can make the most grounded comic book show out there. Speaking to SFX magazine (via GamesRadar), Scardapane said, “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. 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.” It’s nice to see him compliment The Penguin at least, but come on guys, this isn’t a competition, at the end of the day you’re all just making more money for DC and Marvel than you’ll be making for yourselves.
Scardapane did really emphasize the dark tone of the new show, especially compared to the Netflix version, explaining that it has a “pace and a scope that, for a lot of reasons, Netflix wasn’t able to do. 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.”
The first trailer for Daredevil: Born Again finally arrived earlier this month after lengthy delays caused by reshoots, and it’s certainly looking quite dark and violent, but other than that just simply fine to be honest. Oh, and you can also forget about that time Daredevil hooked up with She-Hulk, because it’s not really gonna come up.