It seems even heroes and villains will be forced to take breaks. According to Deadline, production on both Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again and DC’s The Penguin has been paused due to the WGA strike. Both productions had tried to keep filming during the strike only to be met with picket lines at the filming locations. Now it seems that the productions have been paused for good. Sources via Deadline learned that the Disney+ show and the Max series will suspend production until the WGA strike ends.
According to Deadline, New York-based writers have been picketing outside of Silvercup East, the base for the Daredevil series. Production had been paused several times before with the last time being on June 12. The Penguin did not fare any better with the Batman spinoff being targeted by the WGA East writers.
Daredevil: Born Again will be an eighteen-episode show that will be the first step in integrating characters, like Daredevil and Kingpin, into the MCU. These characters began their on-screen life on Netflix when Marvel had slate of more mature TV shows on the platform almost ten years ago. They shared the Netflix-Marvel universe with lesser-known heroes and villains like Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Kilgrave, and Iron Fist.
Marvel has been planning to introduce Charlie Cox’s (Stardust, Kin) Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio’s (Godfather of Harlem, The Kid) Kingpin into the bigger MCU for the last few years. Both actors had cameos in MCU movies and TV shows before Marvel revealed their new show Daredevil: Born Again. Cox had a small cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home as Spider-Man’s attorney. Daredevil also recently appeared in a couple of episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law where Cox appeared wearing a new suit, and having a brief romance with She-Hulk, played by Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black, Perry Mason). D’Onofrio reprised his role as Kingpin for the season finale of Hawkeye, which surprised fans of the original Daredevil show.
The cast of the show includes Cox as Matt Murdock aka Daredevil; D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk also known as Kingpin; Jon Bernthal (American Gigolo, The Bear) will be reprising his role as Frank Castle aka The Punisher; Margarita Levieva (The Deuce, In from the Cold); Sandrine Holt (American Gigolo, The Expanse) who according to The Hollywood Reporter is going to play Vanessa Fisk, the wife of Kingpin; Michael Gandolfini (The Deuce, The Independent); Nikki M. James (Spoiler Alert, Proven Innocent); and Arty Froushan (Carnival Row, House of the Dragon). Two notable absences from the cast are Matt Murdock’s closest friends Karen and Foggy, played by Deborah Ann Woll (Children of Éarte, Deborah) and Elden Henson (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Jobs) in the Netflix series.
The Penguin will be a limited drama that will consist of eight episodes and continue the crime saga set by Matt Reeves (Felicity, Cloverfield) in The Batman. The show will center around The Penguin, the character Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin, Thirteen Lives) played in The Batman.
The cast of the show also includes Cristin Milioti (The Resort, Made for Love) who will play Sofia Falcone; Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption, SpongeBob SquarePants) as Salvatore Maroni; Shohreh Aghdashloo (The Expanse, The Cuban), Michael Kelly (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, House of Cards), Deirdre O’Connell (Outer Range, The Requin), Michael Zegen (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Boardwalk Empire), James Madio (Band of Brothers, The Offer), Scott Cohen (The Fix, East New York), Theo Rossi (Luke Cage, Sons of Anarchy), and Rhenzy Feliz (Runaways, Encanto) will be playing unknown characters from Gotham City.
The Penguin will follow Oswald Cobblepot, played by Farrell, as he undergoes the transformation from a disfigured regular citizen of Gotham City into one of the most noted Gotham gangsters and Batman villains.
It looks like any release date will be postponed until the WGA strike comes to an end and production is allowed to resume. Daredevil: Born Again was set to premiere in the spring of 2024 on Disney+. The original Daredevil show is available to stream on Disney+. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Iron Fist, and The Defenders are also available to stream through Disney+. DC Studios and Max are keeping details of the show under wraps at the moment and no news regarding the release date of The Penguin has been released. In the meantime, The Batman starring Robert Pattinson (Twilight Saga, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is available to stream on Max.