Marvel television is at a crossroads. Gone are the days of light-hearted gimmick shows that play with the TV format, like WandaVision, Hawkeye, or Loki. But the opposite approach, series like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or Secret Invasion that feel like MCU movies divided into serialized chapters, haven’t had much success in their wake.
So if something lighter than MCU movies and something similar to MCU movies aren’t in the future of MCU television, what option is left? A star of the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again has revealed the future of the Marvel television landscape is much darker than we thought.
In an interview on BroBible’s Post Credits Podcast, Daredevil star Vincent D’Onofrio commented on the new MCU Spotlight label, a subsection of Marvel television focusing on more standalone, mature stories. The upcoming Echo is the first series to receive the label, which lets fans know they don’t need to be up to date on the rest of the MCU to enjoy it. But according to D’Onofrio, the Spotlight stories won’t be that standalone, as he believes Daredevil: Born Again will also be released under the label.
“That’s my opinion, I imagine it would be,” D’Onofrio said. “Nobody has said, ‘Hey, did you know this? This is happening’ — nobody said that. But it is of the same tone and feel [as Echo]. The attention that the big bosses are giving to it is extraordinary, and Charlie [Cox] and I are just amazed at how much they care about this series. I can’t imagine it being treated any less.”
The statement about the “big bosses” provides more credence to the theory that Echo and Daredevil: Born Again are setting the tone for future Marvel television releases. Born Again has had a tumultuous path to production, with writers and directors quietly let go earlier this year. But with executives paying special care to this project, that may have been a sign of perfectionism, not instability. Marvel TV has had a lot of misses lately; they need a hit.
Marvel’s Spotlight label was announced as a way to let the MCU be more experimental, but mature, standalone storytelling may become the new normal for the franchise’s TV wing. MCU fans have grown up a lot in the decade since Phase 1. Why not let the subject matter grow up too?
