Looking Back at the “Daredevil: Born Again” Announcement and San Diego Comic-Con 2022!

Hello #FandomWithoutFear, and welcome to our official news page! This post marks our delivery on the promise we made earlier this year to finally switch over from the old newsletter to a more traditional blog format for our regular updates on the state of the campaign.

Since then, you may have heard about the show getting saved, so you can also expect us to begin sharing updates and commentary on any Daredevil-related news, especially as it pertains to the brand-new Disney+ series, Daredevil: Born Again, premiering in Spring 2024. We will also move the old newsletters and campaign statements over here shortly to commemorate our journey up until this point.

And what a journey it’s been – and continues to be!

A beautiful panoramic view of the San Diego city skyline from the Coronado side of the bay. That building with the pointy white tops in the middle? The San Diego Convention Center!

Returning to San Diego Comic-Con

If you’ve been following us on social media recently, you will know that several #SavedDaredevil team members were on location at San Diego Comic-Con 2022. We were thrilled to be able to return to SDCC after two years lost to Covid-19, and with team members flying in from all over the U.S. and abroad (Sweden and Canada!), this also gave some of us a chance to meet in person for the very first time.

While we were all looking forward to seeing each other and meeting with other Daredevil fans on location, our hopes for a solid Daredevil announcement were fairly modest. In May 2022, we’d pivoted from “#SaveDaredevil” to “#SavedDaredevil” when all of the major trade publications simultaneously announced that Marvel Studios were going into development on a new Daredevil show, with Matt Corman and Chris Ord attached as writers and executive producers. In other words, we were already feeling very confident that our favorite show was about to come back, in one form or another, but we weren’t actually expecting to get confirmation from Marvel Studios quite so soon. Speaking of which, we’ll cover Kevin Feige’s announcement and other tidbits from the the Hall H panel in more detail below and through other platforms. For now, suffice it to say that we were blown away! First, let’s get back to the start of the convention.

Meeting the fans

One of our primary goals in attending SDCC was to engage in fan outreach over all four days of the convention. The campaign has had an ongoing reputation for creating incredible branded swag items to pass out during con season, and SDCC 2022 was no exception - we brought brand-new lanyards, illustrated stickers, and freshly brailled business cards, and even designed custom enamel pins and screen printed mini bricks (our own little easter egg nod to Matt Murdock’s appearance in No Way Home). Fans were able to procure swag from us all throughout and outside the main show floor, and those waiting in line for Saturday Hall H were visited by our team on Friday afternoon with brand-new fans (actual, physical fans!) in tow. And throughout the convention, we met with amazing cosplayers who were happy to have their picture taken with the new #SavedDaredevil fan. Some of them are pictured above!

bringing back our Fandom Without Fear Meet-Up

For the first time in literal years, we were able to once again host an in-person meet-up at Basic Pizza/Bar in downtown San Diego for members of the Daredevil fandom. The turnout was tremendous and we were grateful to once again be with our people, sharing pizza, swag, and giveaway prizes for those who participated in our Daredevil themed-trivia!

Toward the end of the meet-up, we were also honored to be joined by actor Peter Shinkoda who played Nobu on the show. Peter has been a longtime friend of the campaign and we were filled with gratitude at his willingness to come by and spend precious time with us. He graciously took photos with everyone still in attendance, and even went face to face with a whole slew of Matt Murdocks and Daredevils! If you missed this year’s festivities, we will definitely be back next year for even more fandom fun.

The announcement in Hall H

There is no bigger or more anticipated panel at San Diego Comic-Con than the Saturday evening Marvel Studios presentation in the hallowed Hall H. Attending this particular Hall H panel tends to be an ordeal of the highest logistical order for even the most seasoned con-goers, but for our team, the very long wait turned out to be well worth the effort. One might even say, #WorthTheWait?! (#iykyk)

As mentioned earlier, we’d been hopeful for some kind of official confirmation of Daredevil’s return to the small screen, but with so many unknowns about what Marvel would bring out in Hall H, we did our best to temper expectations. The Marvel Studios panel kicked off with a sizzle reel featuring characters from across the MCU, which at one point notably included the scene of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock catching a brick in Spider-Man: No Way Home, quickly followed by a cut of Maya Lopez (Echo) and Wilson Fisk (Kingpin) from Hawkeye. At this point, the excitement began to build. Surely, Marvel Studios decided to include these characters for a reason, right?

We didn’t have to wait long. As Kevin Feige introduced the Phase 5 timeline with one (known) Marvel project after another popping up on the screen, tensions rose. Finally, the time came to announce a new project, a “first season” featuring 18 episodes of… Daredevil: Born Again!!! Our collective minds were blown, and the entire room with wild. Within our corner of Hall H, you can bet there was screaming, cheering, jumping around, and quite a few happy tears. We knew Marvel Studios had plans for Daredevil, but none of us had ever dreamed of eighteen whole episodes, of a first season! For those of you who have followed our campaign from the beginning and listened to our conversations as the Disney+ era of the MCU unfolded, we’ve made no attempt to hide our need and desire to see a commitment from Marvel to invest in truly long-form storytelling for Daredevil. So this news was truly everything.

And while we were already ecstatic at how everything had unfolded so far, things were about to get even better. At the end of the She-Hulk segment of the panel (which few of us even remember the details of because we were still in shock) came the new She-Hulk trailer, which ended with a glimpse of Charlie Cox back in the Daredevil suit. Well, not the old suit, but a red and gold(ish) one, reminiscent of the one the character wore for the very first few issues of the comic. A later interview with Tatiana Maslany, who plays She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, revealed that she was surprised to see Daredevil revealed in the trailer, so one can probably assume that this was a late addition to Marvel’s plans. Either way, this made an amazing day for the whole Daredevil fandom even better!

What’s next?

There is much more to say about what all of this means, of course, and we collected our first scattered (and happy) thoughts in an Instagram livestream video made just after leaving Hall H. You can still find it archived on IG if you follow us there, or on YouTube here. We’ll definitely have more to add on this topic, which will feature in our next official #TalkDaredevil livestream featuring team members Phyllis and Sam, happening sometime this week. You’re invited to join us live or rewatch the full stream below when done.

And last, but never least, our team has plans to release some extra fun episodes of our #TalkDaredevil podcast in the next few weeks, including a Ms. Marvel review ep, She-Hulk and Daredevil comic book history ep, and a full San Diego Comic-Con recap pod, summarizing our entire convention experience.

Have thoughts, questions, or just want to say hello? Make sure you’re following us across all of our social media channels or hit up the comment box below.