Marvel quietly let go of head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and also released the directors for the remainder of the season as part of a significant creative reboot of the series, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The studio is now on the hunt for new writers and directors for the project
Through it all, the company eschewed the traditional TV-making model. It didn’t commission pilots but instead shot entire $150 million-plus seasons of TV on the fly. It didn’t hire showrunners, but instead depended on film executives to run its series. And as Marvel does for its movies, it relied on postproduction and reshoots to fix what wasn’t working.
The show is Marvel’s first to feature a hero who already had a successful series on Netflix, running three seasons. But sources say that Corman and Ord crafted a legal procedural that did not resemble the Netflix version, known for its action and violence. Cox didn’t even show up in costume until the fourth episode. Marvel, after greenlighting the concept, found itself needing to rethink the original intention of the show.
Daredevil is far from the first Marvel series to undergo drastic behind-the-scenes changes. Those who work with Marvel on the TV side have complained of a lack of central vision that has, according to sources, begun to afflict the studio’s shows with creative differences and tension. “TV is a writer-driven medium,” says one insider familiar with the Marvel process. “Marvel is a Marvel-driven medium.”
On the Oscar Isaac starrer Moon Knight, show creator and writer Jeremy Slater quit and director Mohamed Diab took the reins. Jessica Gao developed and wrote She-Hulk: Attorney at Law but was sidelined once director Kat Coiro came on board. Production was challenging, with COVID hitting cast and crew, and Gao was brought back to oversee postproduction, a typical showrunner duty, but it’s the rare Marvel head writer who has such oversight.
Even though the company does not have a writers-first approach to TV, directors could feel short-changed as well. “The whole ‘fix it in post’ attitude makes it feel like a director doesn’t matter sometimes,” says one person familiar with the process.
Details are murky, but what happened next, in the summer of 2022, debilitated the production as factions became entrenched and leaders vied for supremacy during Secret Invasion’s preproduction in London. “It was weeks of people not getting along, and it erupted,” says an insider. Marvel declined to directly comment on the matter.
The company dispatched Jonathan Schwartz, a senior executive and member of Marvel’s creative steering committee known as The Parliament, to get Secret Invasion back on track when it was falling behind schedule and on the verge of losing some actors because of other commitments.
By early September, a good portion of the Invasion team had been replaced, with new line producers, unit production managers and assistant directors. And Bezucha, who was supposed to direct three episodes, left the show because of new scheduling conflicts. The Marvel executive overseeing the show, Chris Gary, was reassigned and, according to sources, is expected to depart Marvel when his contract is up at the end of the year.
The studio also plans on having full-time TV execs, rather than having executives straddle both television and film.
It also is revamping its development process. Showrunners will write pilots and show bibles. The days of Marvel shooting an entire series, from She-Hulk to Secret Invasion, then looking at what’s working and what’s not, are done.
the studio plans on leaning into the idea of multiseason serialized TV, stepping away from the limited-series format that has defined it. Marvel wants to create shows that run several seasons, where characters can take time to develop relationships with the audience rather than feeling as if they are there as a setup for a big crossover event.
It’s a bit of a long read, but I thought it was interesting what a mess the Marvel production was.
Marvel Studios has always had a tough relationship with TV cough Inhumans cough. I think Agents of SHEILD being their only successful non-Netflix show before launching a plethora of shows on Disney+ (and even that one was a little rough around the edges).
Since launching Disney+, I have personally found the Marvel TV quality to consistently hit C+/B- quality, with occasional highlights (the first half of Wandavision, most of Loki); which surprised me since I felt the movies hit higher quality more consistently.
It makes sense the TV landscape has been hard with Marvel after reading this article, though. Committing to a whole season/ series with no pilot seems risky enough, but combine that with no show-runner and a fix-it-in-post attitude, and it’s a shock the shows came out as passable as they did.
It sounds like Disney is planning to change that, but I’m not sure how much I believe that to be honest.
But sources say that Corman and Ord crafted a legal procedural that did not resemble the Netflix version, known for its action and violence. Cox didn’t even show up in costume until the fourth episode.
This feels like the wrong take to me, as described anyway. I don’t really know what the general consensus is, but it feels to me like the Netflix show should be “known for” its depth of character, moody tone, and yes, action set pieces. But it wasn’t just the inclusion of “action and violence” that was noteworthy, but rather its commitment to choreographing dynamic and creative scenes while imbuing them with genuine character (Matt’s exhausted lean against the wall in the first season’s hallway fight, or his grin in the second season’s stairway fight).
Ultimately, what the Netflix version should really be known for is Charlie Cox’s pitch perfect performance. He’s the draw, up and down. That’s why a legal procedural approach actually sounds really great to me. Give me more Matt Murdoch in the courtroom, that stuff is fucking great because Charlie Cox is fucking great and the original production leaned into that.
Honestly I think it’s bold that Daredevil didn’t show up in costume until the 4th episode (he didn’t technically show up in his actual costume at all in the 3rd season, which was also fucking great). Sure it’s possible that the show really just wasn’t working, but I’m heavily inclined to think Disney is compelled to learn all the wrong lessons.
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Fewer than half of the series’ 18 episodes had been shot, but it was enough for Marvel executives, including chief Kevin Feige, to review the footage and come away with a clear-eyed assessment: The show wasn’t working.
So, in late September, Marvel quietly let go of head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and also released the directors for the remainder of the season as part of a significant creative reboot of the series, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Since debuting the Emmy-winning WandaVision in January 2021, the studio, which dominated the film industry in the 2010s, has released more than 50 hours of TV programming after creating a small-screen division from the ground up during the pandemic.
Production was challenging, with COVID hitting cast and crew, and Gao was brought back to oversee postproduction, a typical showrunner duty, but it’s the rare Marvel head writer who has such oversight.
The company dispatched Jonathan Schwartz, a senior executive and member of Marvel’s creative steering committee known as The Parliament, to get Secret Invasion back on track when it was falling behind schedule and on the verge of losing some actors because of other commitments.
Echo, which premieres in January, is a grounded crime story with few visual effects, revolving around deaf Native American antihero Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox).
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