The showrunner of “Daredevil: Born Again” can’t help but get a little emotional when his hometown of Seattle is brought up.
“You’re going to get me weepy in a second,” Dario Scardapane says after being asked how the city inspired his creative voice and point of view. “I had a previous life as a punk rock musician. I grew up when there was not much difference between the audience and the band. Everyone was so supportive. We shared everything. We pushed each other to do something cool. I don’t know if there was another cultural movement that was like that. It 100% formed me as a creative person.”
Scardapane has taken that same collaborative approach, contagious enthusiasm and positive energy into his work as a screenwriter, producer and showrunner. After creating the NBC medical drama “Trauma” and writing on FX’s “The Bridge” and Prime Video’s “Jack Ryan,” Scardapane later wrote and produced the Marvel series “The Punisher” for Netflix. So when Disney+ needed to find a new showrunner for “Daredevil: Born Again” (the first two episodes of which begin streaming at 6 p.m. March 4), Scardapane had already proved he could handle a beloved comic book figure.
A revival of the critically acclaimed “Daredevil” series that aired for three seasons on Netflix, “Born Again” sees Charlie Cox returning as the titular character/Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio back as the villainous Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. While blind lawyer Murdock continues to fight for justice under the guise of Daredevil, Fisk is pursuing a political career, as he launches his campaign to become mayor of New York City. Unsurprisingly, the pair soon collide once again.
When Scardapane was approached about replacing “Daredevil: Born Again’s” previous showrunners Matt Corman and Chris Ord, he was intent on “building a bridge” to the previous seasons. “I wanted to show where the characters were now seven years after the end of the last show. That was most of my job.”
It was a job Scardapane had been preparing for since he was a teenager. Scardapane was 18 when he stepped into a comic book shop for the first time and was introduced to the works of Frank Miller and Alan Moore. “Their storytelling always came from a rather irreverent and DIY place. It reminded me of the Pacific Northwest. That’s what attracted me to it.”
Scardapane was particularly impacted by Miller’s “The Dark Knight” series, which is regarded as one of the most influential Batman stories ever told. “Even my English professors were, like, ‘This is literature.’ I remember the guy behind the counter at the comic book store telling me that if I liked his Dark Knight, I’d love Miller’s Daredevil run.”
Which made it all the more surreal for Scardapane when, on the last night of filming “Daredevil: Born Again,” Miller turned up. While shooting the show, Scardapane got to spend time hanging out with the famed comic book artist and writer, discussing their favorite books and movies. “I almost had an out-of-body experience. I was telling my biggest influence how Raymond Chandler, Humphrey Bogart and all these noirs had influenced me.”
With “Daredevil: Born Again,” Scardapane wants to merge these influences and the visual style of the older Netflix show with a “gritty, crime drama feel,” adding, “We wanted to see more of the New York street in the show.” Scardapane’s love for each of the Daredevil characters is so deep that he wanted to dive into the humanity of each of them. “Fisk and Murdock are two characters that feel like they’re from a Greek tragedy. There’s an inevitability to Fisk. We wanted to tell a classic tale of the rise to power of a tyrant. I wanted to get to the heart of a villain like Fisk. I wanted to show how it feels for Murdock to hang up his spurs and the dilemma that causes him. I wanted it to feel like you’d jumped on Daredevil’s shoulders and you were being taken for a ride.”
Collaborating with Cox and D’Onofrio reminded Scardapane of his punk rock years in Seattle. Whenever he’d bring a new idea to them, they’d immediately build and evolve it into something else that was even more powerful. “They just know the characters so well. They always added value. Vincent in particular, his take on Fisk is so specific and deep. There’s always something purposeful to what he does.”
Ultimately, with “Daredevil: Born Again,” Scardapane just hopes that returning viewers feel the same sense of excitement they had when they watched the original seasons. But, in his own inimitable and deeply Seattle fashion, he uses a metaphor that once again harks back to his days as a musician: “We wanted it to feel like the band is back together and they’re going on another tour. I want people to feel like they’re back with characters they really love. I hope we take viewers to places they could never have expected. I want it to feel familiar, but then defy those expectations. I love that sense of anticipation. That’s always what I’m after.”
“Daredevil: Born Again”
The first two episodes begin streaming at 6 p.m. March 4 on Disney+, with new episodes dropping Tuesdays through April 15.
