I’m glad they’re redoing Daredevil: Born Again, because it sounded like it wasn’t going to be good.
I woke up this morning and there was a whole lot of news to tell, and I realized only two people can bring it to you like we do. So the Know-It-All News is back, and I brought my muscle with me. Mrs. Know-It-All takes care of my light work over here. We recently hit the 2,500 subscriber mark and we’re on our way, so I’m loving each and every one of y’all.
Four stories today: Marvel tearing up Daredevil, He-Man coming back to Netflix, The Wheel of Time taking the fantasy torch, and the fight Star Wars fans keep having with themselves.
Marvel Stops Daredevil and Starts Again
The Marvel television universe is having its moment of reckoning. According to a scoop from The Hollywood Reporter, production on Daredevil: Born Again was halted amid the writers strike with less than half of the 18 episode series in the can, and Marvel execs, Kevin Feige included, decided the show was veering off course. By late September a creative overhaul needed to happen, and head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman, along with the directors for the remaining episodes, were shown the door. Now the studio’s on a quest for fresh creative minds to steer the Daredevil ship back on track, with Charlie Cox reprising his role as the sightless lawyer and superhero Matt Murdock.
This hiccup is part of a larger drama in the Marvel television division. Since WandaVision in 2021, Marvel has churned out over 50 hours of TV programming, and it did it by departing from the traditional TV making model. As someone who’s come from television, I can tell you what that means. They basically skipped the pilot phase. They relied heavily on post production to iron out the wrinkles. And they substituted showrunners with film execs, an exercise that has absolutely never once played well in Hollywood.
That approach put some Marvel series on the Disney Plus most watched list, and it also stirred up enough creative trouble to force a rethink. Marvel’s now embracing traditional TV development, with showrunners leading projects so there’s a consistent vision, and the report points to Echo and Wonder Man as where that shift shows up. The aim is serialized storytelling that lets an audience connect with a character over multiple seasons.
I don’t think anybody is surprised these questions are being asked today.
There were leaks about what the story was going to be, and we didn’t talk about them here because I don’t want to even entertain those things. But the talk was about episodes very akin to season one of the Netflix series. He’s not in the costume, he’s kind of finding himself, all this other stuff. We already know all that.
Mrs. Know-It-All put it plainer than I did: why don’t they just pick up where they left off from the Netflix series? I think that would’ve been the smarter move, of all of it. This is a good move for Marvel. They’ve let us down one too many times. I liked Daredevil on Netflix, and I hope Marvel does it right.
There were also all indications they were going to lean heavier into the Marvel-ism of it all. By that I mean he was going to wear the yellow outfit and he was going to be a little more lighthearted. We’d still have gotten some darker, heavier stories. But the Netflix series leaned into what we loved about it, and it doesn’t have to be completely dark for that to be true. We just liked that story format.
Why People Were Getting Frustrated
You remember Secret Invasion was not my favorite. It was enough to break me. I have no intention of finishing that thing, and truthfully I don’t know that I’m hard pressed to want to watch something from them again. Now you find out all this stuff going on behind the scenes, and it actually makes a lot of sense why people were getting frustrated.
There are a whole lot of people online, scoopers and not scoopers, trying to sell all kinds of narratives. And a lot of them are purposely trying to piss you off, telling you the movie you all love sucked, or that She-Hulk was great. Bro, I’m sorry. She-Hulk was not great. If you liked it, hey, different strokes for different folks. I’m strictly coming from a storytelling standpoint, and it didn’t sell us the legal drama they talked about. That’s really what I was looking for the most.
Moon Knight is the other side of that. I know Oscar Isaac is extraordinarily proud of it, and we loved Moon Knight in this house. It was refreshing. It was a nice palate cleanser, and I was okay with it standing alone. Ms. Marvel felt designed to attract a younger audience and also to purposely say, look, we’re so much a part of the MCU. It didn’t need to be.
That’s one of the reasons I think Loki works so well. Season 2 is going and I’m very much about it. We’re dropping a review tomorrow, so as soon as you’ve watched, come check out the channel. I’m hoping they clean up some of the messes and don’t get bogged down in the will she, won’t she, who is He Who Remains, or Kang the Conqueror. Who cares. Enjoy each piece as it’s coming.
He-Man Is Coming Back to Netflix
The realms of Eternia are stirring again. A fresh clip from Netflix’s Masters of the Universe: Revolution landed in our laps, and don’t let your mind play tricks on you, this isn’t déjà vu from Masters of the Universe: Revelation, the one Kevin Smith brought us a while back. This time it’s He-Man crossing swords with Scare Glow, and the clip came out of the DROP 01 showcase, where He-Man showed up among a lineup of Netflix animation.
Revolution is set for 2024, exclusively on Netflix. It’s a standalone story with a loose tether to the events of Revelation. The age-old feud between He-Man and Skeletor is back on, with a brand new adversary arriving in Hordak. And Chris Wood came back again to voice He-Man, leading a cast that’s brimming with star power.
Mrs. Know-It-All watched a couple of the original run with me. You remember the noise at the time: people said it was going to turn into a woke fest, and that wasn’t at all the case. She really liked what they did. The times she popped down next to me to watch, she said she felt about yay big again.
I liked everything they did. I thought the stories were exciting and very interesting. At first it did feel like, what’s going on, what are you guys doing? But by the end of it I genuinely saw He-Man in it. I really didn’t think they were going to do another one, so I’m excited, especially with some of the casting choices, which I’ll be more than happy to tell you all about in a future Know-It-All News.
The Wheel of Time Takes the Torch
As the dust settles on HBO’s Game of Thrones, the fantasy torch seems to have passed to Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time, says CBR. Yes, I said The Wheel of Time. You might’ve thought I was going to say Lord of the Rings, but Wheel of Time is clearly the standout right now.
Game of Thrones was once the epitome of fantasy TV, and its allure dimmed with a less than satisfying ending. The Wheel of Time, based on Robert Jordan’s books, is resonating with fans old and new, especially with the Season 2 that just finished airing. Where Game of Thrones went realistic and dark, The Wheel of Time embraces a vibrant, classic fantasy look, full of bright colors and rich imagery, without giving up intense plots or character depth. The passion behind it, led by showrunner Rafe Judkins, shows in a faithful adaptation and in how the show engages the fandom, next to the apparent loss of zeal from the Game of Thrones creators in the later seasons.
Season 2 got less promotion from Prime Video because of the industry strikes, and it still grew. On October 8th, 2023 it was trending on Prime Video behind only Gen V, the spinoff of The Boys. CBR’s read is that it’s poised to redefine fantasy on TV, and I for one am here for it.
I fell in love with it last season. I’m more in love with it this season. And what’s funny is that Game of Thrones did what Wheel of Time is doing. They adapted the books, so not every single moment made it, but some were hardcore faithful. The Red Wedding felt as if it was lifted right out of the books and dropped onto our TV screens. Wheel of Time has done some of the same in Season 2, and I’m really enjoying the adaptation part, seeing where they’re moving.
And unlike Game of Thrones, we all know The Wheel of Time has an ending. They didn’t have to invent one. They know where it’s going.
Mrs. Know-It-All was one of the few people who liked the Game of Thrones ending, and she thinks it’s because she never read the books. I made her watch all of it right before that last season came out, so it was fresh for her, while the rest of us had waited quite some time and came away extremely disappointed. She spent all that time nagging me about when we were getting the second season of Wheel of Time, and now she’s going to bug me about the third.
I firmly believe we’re going to see a strong push to get Season 3 done. I believe Amazon is going to look at this and say, this didn’t cost us a billion dollars or more like Lord of the Rings, everyone loves it, let’s keep it moving. I don’t believe we’re in for a long slump.
She brought up where Amazon failed, which is Carnival Row. She really enjoyed Carnival Row, but it was done so long ago, and we kept getting promised another season, another season, another season. She thinks it’s missed its mark and won’t be as relevant as when it first came out. She was just as excited for it as she was for Wheel of Time Season 2, and now that excitement is gone, because it’s become, oh yeah, that was something we watched. I agree.
I think the majority of us agree Game of Thrones waned toward the end. It lost its path without those actual George R.R. Martin books to go from.
What Do Star Wars Fans Actually Want?
Star Wars is in a strange place with its own fan base. The rift opened with the sequel trilogy, which left a lot of fans yearning for the lore and allure that made Star Wars a phenomenon in the first place. Then came the Disney Plus series, each one a dice throw. The Mandalorian Seasons 1 and 2 brought a new hope, a path reminiscent of the original trilogy’s spirit. The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian Season 3 veered off and left a trail of questions. Kenobi opened to stellar ratings that looked like a return to form, then took a nosedive. Ahsoka sailed in blending the familiar with the fresh, and still found itself in the eye of the storm.
So is it the deviation from the original lore, a desire for fresher stories, or a yearning for a perfect blend of both? I’ve been asking myself the same question.
There were elements I thought were a little bit off in the very beginning of Ahsoka. But there’s other criticism I don’t agree with. If you watch Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin, and don’t get me wrong, I understand Marc Bernardin beats everything up, he said something that had us yelling at the screen. We were watching on YouTube on our TV like everybody else, yelling, what are you talking about? Because his complaint was that apparently he had to know who all these characters were.
So I asked the person sitting next to me, who literally knows nothing about Rebels or Clone Wars, what she thought of Ahsoka.
She thought it was fine. A friend of hers had put up a very positive post about it on Facebook. That friend knew the character and Mrs. Know-It-All knew nothing, and they were just as excited as each other. Me being there to fill in some of the gaps was great, she said, but she still wouldn’t have needed it. As a Gen X, grown Star Wars fan who didn’t know much about Ahsoka, her words were: that’s my Star Wars. I feel like I’m watching Star Wars again.
I agree, and if anything it was telling us a new story. I think that’s the problem. The fan base has to find its lane. Either all you want is the Skywalker saga again and again, continued forever, ad nauseam, where the universe feels very small, or we get new characters. You get Ahsoka Tano, you get this whole new group of people, and you get to see things happen. We’re never going to be able to get Han Solo again. But we can get General Hera. That’s what you want from a thriving universe. This is a huge galaxy far, far away. There’s so much going on.
Mrs. Know-It-All didn’t love Kenobi, but she liked it enough to watch and had fun with it, because she liked seeing where Leia came from. She’s liked The Mandalorian. On The Book of Boba Fett she went back and forth, but she had to remember this was a book about Boba Fett. Just because an episode was about Mando doesn’t mean it wasn’t part of the book of Boba Fett. I agree with that 100 percent.
She wonders if maybe Star Wars fans are becoming a little too hard on ourselves. Part of her also wonders about the bigger picture: Disney owns Star Wars, Disney owns Marvel, and with that shakeup at Marvel, the bottom line is they have to figure it out on both sides.
I bet she’s right. And I think us as Star Wars fans need to figure out what we want.
There you go. Now you know. And if knowing is half the battle, you’re halfway to being a know-it-all yourself.
Tell us where you are on all of it. Are you in or out on Marvel TV, and what do you wish they’d do with Daredevil? Did Ahsoka disappoint you, or was it everything you wanted? If you think it sucked, tell us why. You can be upset and angry, that’s okay, but I’m down for an actual conversation, and it lives in the comments on the video above. Never forget, everyone loves a know-it-all.
