Daredevil: Born Again Draws 7.5 Million Views in First 5 Days, ‘B+’ Grade From TVLine Readers
The devil is in the details. And now we have a few details regarding Daredevil: Born Again‘s performance on Disney+ since its March 4 release.
The streamer announced on Monday that the Marvel Television series’ premiere episode drove 7.5 million views globally, with each view defined as “total stream time divided by runtime” — in this case, one hour for the first episode.
That’s good enough to rank as “the biggest premiere of the year on Disney+,” the streamer touts, though all that tells me is that it outperformed, what, the launches of Goosebumps Season 2 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man…?
Meanwhile, TVLine readers gave the revival-of-sorts’ debut an average grade of “B+.”
Daredevil: Born Again streams Episode 3 this Tuesday at 9/8c.
BORN AGAIN PREMIERE SPOILERS AHEAD!
Perhaps polarizing for fans of the original Marvel’s Daredevil series that ran for three seasons on Netflix was Born Again‘s killing of a main character, and in the first eight minutes. Though Dario Scardapane, the showrunner who came on board after the infamous midseason creative overhaul, says that Foggy Nelson’s fate was sealed before his tenure.
“It was in the material that I inherited [from Chris Ord and Matt Corman], but unfortunately it was off-screen,” Scardapane told TVLine. “And I felt really strongly that if we were to do something that earth-shattering and something that was going to cause such a ripple effect in Matt’s life, we had to see it and we had to feel it.”
Charlie Cox told me that reuniting on-screen with both Deborah Ann Woll (who plays Karen Page) and Elden Henson, only for the latter to get killed off so quickly, was “a real tough pill to swallow,” tells TVLine.
“When that was talked about in the beginning, I couldn’t quite get my head around that,” the English actor shared. But in reviving the series for Disney+, “I understand … that we need to make a big splash. We want to rock the boat early on and draw people in in a new way. [Killing Foggy] is one way to do it, but it’s a big choice.”
Want scoop on Daredevil: Born Again, or for any other TV show? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
7.5 million views for the whole globe seems small, which means everything else must be getting nothing.
If check you check the numbers for other Disney+ properties even the low rated Ahsoka, Acolyte and Agatha all along had better premiere viewing numbers. This is low. Even for Disney+.
Wow killing off Foggy… what a shocker a revival killing off a beloved character from the original to …. shock the audience! Wish we could get pre Disney Marvel back.
Disney bought Marvel in 2009.
Daredevil Netflix premiered in 2015. All modern day Marvel series premiered AFTER Disney bought Marvel.
So you wish none of the series, like Netflix Daredevil or Agents of SHIELD, never happened?
Thank you! They have been overseeing everything since the Incredible Hulk & Iron Man 2 were in post production, which means excluding Iron Man, they had a hand in everything, including Marvel Television: Agents of SHIELD, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Agent Carter, Defenders, Punisher, Runaways, Cloak & Dagger & Inhumans
Did I enjoy everyone equally? No. But am I glad they exist? Yes.
They didn’t need to kill Foogy to make a splash. It was an insult to fans eagerly awaiting the show’s return.
The original show never avoided killing main characters.
James Wesley – Season 1
Ben Urich – Season 1
Leland Owlsley – Season 1
Elektra Natchios – Season 2 (resurrected in Defenders, presumed dead)
Ray Nadeem – Season 3
That’s a third of their main cast members & when another third are Matt Murdock (title character), Wilson Fisk (main antagonist), Benjamin Poindexter (unfinished prototype of an iconic villain), Frank Castle (lead of a spin off) & Claire Temple (the connection to the other Defenders shows).
Everybody loves Foggy. That’s why it’s effective. Foggy’s primary role in the narrative was his being in on Matt’s secret, but being actively opposed to him being Daredevil. It was never going to be a happy ending as long as Foggy was part of Matt’s life & Matt was Daredevil. Killing Karen would have been using a female character’s death (specifically a former love interest) to motivate or hurt Matt, which while comic book accurate, is obvious & has happened so many times in the comics that it’s become a running gag.