Marvel cancelled Daredevil: Born Again for a very questionable reason

Oh Daredevil: Born Again, we were just getting to know you. The Marvel Television series premiered on Disney Plus in March 2025 and it kicked off a new trend for Marvel Studios: Annual shows set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a stark contrast to the massively-budgeted miniseries of the years prior that could never hope to break even. And what better character to spotlight than the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.

Born Again is a revival of Netflix’s Daredevil series, bringing back the main cast for another story that officially confirmed their existence in the MCU (the Netflix shows played fast and loose with the continuity). That show was cancelled after three seasons, throwing the fates of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and his inner circle into uncertainty. It was up to Marvel Studios to step in and fix it – and they did. Until they broke it again.

Daredevil: Born Again‘s cancellation after three seasons marks a sad day for the MCU, as it’s the end of so much more than one show. It’s a disappointing recreation of the very history that Marvel fought hard to rewrite, it’s a shocking sign of a franchise trend of blaming one project for a larger problem, and it’s an outrageous journey right back to square one.

Marvel Studios is reimagining its TV slate… again

Daredevil: Born Again marked a change for Marvel TV. The studio got a little too enthusiastic with the launch of both the Disney Plus streaming service and the MCU’s Multiverse Saga, producing a multitude of larger-than-life miniseries with movie-level budgets. While there were genuine success stories like WandaVision, Agatha All Along, and even the massive budgeted Loki (which was the biggest TV hit), there were low points like the critical and commercial failure Secret Invasion. To course-correct, Marvel Studios formed Marvel Television to produce long-form, multi-season TV shows on a much cheaper budget. And that’s where Daredevil: Born Again came in.

It was always the plan to bring in Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin into the mainstream MCU (the former was officially reintroduced in Spider-Man: Brand New Day while the latter debuted in Hawkeye) but a misguided attempt to “reboot” them as new versions of their respective characters instead led to their original vision for Born Again being scrapped and rebooted as a sequel series to the original show. It was everything that fans had been waiting years for, and it allowed Marvel Studios to realize its vision of annual ongoing TV.

But just as it got that vision off the ground – Born Again‘s first season premiered in March 2025, its second in March 2026, and its third and final is set for March 2027 – Marvel has pressed the reset button on its TV slate again. The Multiverse Saga is coming to a close and it appears that this is a chance for the studio to move on from the highs and lows of its Disney Plus TV era – or, at the very least, reboot it again.

The studio’s critically-acclaimed, Emmy-nominated Wonder Man was renewed for a second season earlier this year before it was subsequently cancelled – before that second season came to fruition. Now, Daredevil: Born Again – which was renewed for a third season despite a ratings drop in season 2 andwas making plans for future seasons – has been ended after its third season was filmed, potentially resulting in a lacklustre conclusion. Clearly, something has changed.

Multiple reports have claimed that Marvel Studios is pulling back on TV in the next chapter of the MCU (which is being tentatively called the Mutants Era). The Multiverse Saga was an unexpectedly rough chapter for the franchise and its television expansion gets a lot of blame for that – with many feeling that it diluted the brand and ultimately harmed some of its theatrical releases. But with Thunderbolts* and The Fantastic Four: First Steps winning the approval of both fans and critics, Spider-Man: Brand New Day breaking box office records, and Avengers: Doomsday looking to do the same, the feeling is that Marvel isn’t going to risk squandering its comeback. And with that, paring back on TV seems to be their solution to that.

It’s not the end of Marvel TV; The Hollywood Reporterreveals that the studio actively has 3 -5 TV shows in development, with one being a grounded spy thriller titled Zodiac. Whether or not it will be a miniseries or a multi-season show remains to be seen, but in the meantime the Marvel Television brand will consist solely of ongoing animated shows X-Men ’97, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Marvel Zombies (all of which technically fall under the Marvel Animation banner).

It would be a shame if the studio reverted to big-budget miniseries again, but perhaps doing it more sporadically would be the happy medium here. It would allow the franchise to remain more must-see, ensuring that each TV appearance felt like a rarity, ensuring that a larger audience would tune in on the night/in the morning – something that ongoing TV shows struggle with as audiences quickly get familiar with what they are watching.

Although the first season of Daredevil: Born Again did perform well, becoming Disney Plus’ most-watched series premiere of 2025 (amassing 7.5 million minutes streamed in the first five days), its viewership dropped by around 50% for the superior second season – which was likely influenced by the fact that the first few episodes of season 1 were rough, meaning that Daredevil fans may not have stuck around to see the revival get truly incredible under the leadership of Dario Scardapane – who took over after the creative reset and completely oversaw season 2.

Suddenly it’s 2018 again and we’re all watching Daredevil bow out after three seasons. Although Marvel Studios should know better than to see themselves become the enemy that they once fought against, the good news is that this is likely just the end of this particular chapter for Daredevil and friends. They are now officially a part of the MCU and two Avengers movies are on the horizon – perhaps now is the time to fully cross the characters over with some of the more mainsteam Marvel heroes.

Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney Plus.