Marvel Studios' future plans for its Netflix reboot projects look far less certain after a concerning new Disney+ reveal. The studio revived its old Netflix corner of the Marvel universe with Daredevil: Born Again, which returned Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock and Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk to screens in March last year. That revival expanded fast, as a Punisher special, a teased Jessica Jones project, and a full Defenders reunion all entered the pipeline at Marvel Television. The characters that fans bonded with on Netflix were back, and the future looked bright and rosy, not entirely.
New Luminate data shows Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 lost roughly half of Season 1's audience on Disney+. Across the first five episodes of each season, Season 2 drew 4,515,000 views and 10,867,000 hours watched, while Season 1 generated 8,357,000 views and 24 million hours over the same stretch. That works out to a decline of around 46% in views and over 54% in hours.
Luminate's data also reveals that Agatha All Along averaged roughly 5 million views across its first five episodes, easily outperforming Born Again Season 2. However, older Disney+ Marvel series commanded much larger long-tail audiences. Within their first 26 weeks, Moon Knight captured over 20 million views, She-Hulk surpassed 15 million, and even Secret Invasion cleared the 10 million mark.
Born Again's Luminate numbers are definitely better than shows like Ironheart, which had only 260.8 million minutes viewed in its first week. However, clearing that low bar means little, considering how poorly Ironheart is regarded in the Marvel community.
Born Again's weekly Luminate breakdown leaves little room for optimism. Season 1's premiere week pulled in 1,904,000 views back in March 2025. Season 2's opening week, which began when the season premiered on March 24 this year, managed 927,000. Each week of Season 2 then delivered roughly half the views of the matching week of Season 1, so the drop reflects a smaller audience overall rather than a slow start.
Nielsen confirmed this downward trend after the eight-episode season ended. The finale, "The Southern Cross," premiered on May 5, but the show failed to make Nielsen’s Top 10 originals list for the week of May 4–10. In fact, none of the episodes from either season have ever charted. Between the nine episodes of Season 1 and the eight of Season 2, the series is now a combined 0-for-17 on the ratings charts, a shutout that no other live-action MCU Disney+ show shares.
The frustrating part for Marvel Studios is that audiences who did tune in clearly loved what they saw. Season 2 scored 91% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, up from Season 1's 87%, and "The Southern Cross" became the highest-rated single episode of any MCU Disney+ series on IMDb with a 9.6, edging out the Loki Season 2 finale's 9.5. Quality clearly wasn’t Season 2's problem. The previous season faced a mountain of production hurdles before it even premiered, affecting its quality and likely leaving a bad taste in viewers' mouths. Combined with the lackluster reception of MCU Phases 4 and 5, fans probably didn't see a reason to risk their time on Born Again Season 2.
How Born Again Compares to Other Marvel Disney+ Shows
To understand the gravity of Daredevil: Born Again, missing the Nielsen Top 10, it helps to look at the competition. Here are the live-action Marvel shows that made Nielsen's weekly rankings when they aired, and the viewership they pulled:
- WandaVision - 434 million minutes (two-episode premiere)
- The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - 495 million minutes
- Loki Season 1 - 731 million minutes
- Hawkeye - 852 million minutes (two-episode premiere)
- Moon Knight - 418 million minutes
- Ms. Marvel - 249 million minutes
- She-Hulk: Attorney at Law - 390 million minutes
- Secret Invasion - 461 million minutes
- Loki Season 2 - 446 million minutes
- Echo - 731 million minutes (five-episode binge)
- Agatha All Along - 426 million minutes (two-episode premiere)
- Ironheart - 526 million minutes (three-episode premiere)
Even Ms. Marvel, the weakest performer on that chart, entered Nielsen's rankings with 249 million minutes in its debut week. Agatha All Along entered at #8 during its debut week, with 446 million minutes, and later ranked #5, with 744 million minutes for its finale, while Ironheart debuted at #6 despite arriving during a rough patch for the brand. Daredevil: Born Again, which is arguably a bigger brand than many of these shows, never registered at all, across two full seasons.
Budget does offer one genuine silver lining, though. Season 1 of Born Again reportedly cost around $200 million for nine episodes, roughly $22 million per episode, well under Marvel's VFX-heavy productions. Forbes pegged Secret Invasion at $211.6 million for just six episodes, about $35 million each, while WandaVision and She-Hulk reportedly ran near $25 million per episode. A grounded crime drama with practical fights can survive on a smaller audience than a CGI spectacle. However, it still can't survive on an audience that halves every year.
What Comes Next for Marvel's Netflix Reboot Plans
Marvel's near-term street-level slate is already locked in, which limits how quickly any course correction can show up on screen. Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 received an early renewal and started filming before Season 2's numbers came in, with a premiere expected in 2027. Set photos confirmed Mike Colter, Krysten Ritter, and Finn Jones shooting together in Brooklyn, reuniting Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist with Daredevil for the first time since 2017's The Defenders. The Punisher: One Last Kill, the special presentation Jon Bernthal co-wrote with director Reinaldo Marcus Green, premiered just last month. Everything beyond those commitments is where the uncertainty now lives.
Jessica Jones is the first project likely to feel it. Marvel Television head Brad Winderbaum teased on the Phase Hero podcast that a new Jessica Jones project could arrive "maybe sooner than you think." Ritter joined the same episode and confirmed she and Winderbaum already settled on ideas the two of them "are going to be doing:"
"There's a lot of stuff that I've felt there was room to explore, and Brad and I talked about it. And I am not going to say any of it, because we're going to be doing it."
Those comments came months before the Season 2 data surfaced, and the numbers give Marvel every reason to shrink the scope of whatever Ritter signed up for. A full-season order needs a full-season audience, and Born Again just proved the Defenders brand may no longer command one on Disney+. However, Born Again Season 3 could change things for the better, since fans are really looking forward to Matt Murdock's potential prison break.
Also, viewership is not the only factor Marvel is likely to look at. Fans loving the show and the characters is enough reason to keep doing more, regardless of the numbers. Wonder Man had pretty lackluster numbers, but Marvel still greenlit a second season because fans who watched it loved it. For context, Luminate's data show Wonder Man raked in only 549.6 million minutes watched in its first 10 days. Born Again Season 2 had 629.4 million minutes-watched in comparison.
Regardless, Season 3 still needs to pull solid numbers. If Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones together can't push Born Again onto a Nielsen chart for the first time in the show's history, Marvel will struggle to justify solo vehicles for any of them. A genuine ratings rebound, on the other hand, would hand each returning hero a proof of concept and likely fast-track the potential Jessica Jones project as a full series.
The movies also offer Marvel another viable option. Bernthal's Punisher appears in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which swings into theaters on July 31, and the Born Again finale already seeded connections to that film's New York. Bringing the street-level heroes into theatrical releases keeps them alive in front of audiences that reliably show up, without betting tens of millions on television seasons that can’t attract substantial viewership.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
