Daredevil: Born Again Ends With Season 3 as Paramount-Warner Bros Merger Settlement Clears Final Hurdle

Daredevil: Born Again is ending after its next season, and the Paramount-Warner Bros merger has now cleared the last legal hurdle standing in its way, with a settlement that lets David Ellison's new company operate with almost no oversight once five years pass. Both stories broke within days of each other, and I think that timing is fascinating.

Daredevil is a character built around the idea that justice is blind, sometimes in a good way and sometimes because it has been blinded by the powers that be, which is why Matt Murdock feels he has to exist even while fighting for justice in the courts. I find that fitting given what is happening in the real world right now, because for all the questioning over whether this merger should have been stopped, nothing has happened. There have been no repercussions and no slap on the wrist. I'd also point to two movies bearing on this, Digger and Resident Evil. Resident Evil, in my view, is about feeling stuck on a rollercoaster we didn't ask to get on and can't get off because of the powers that be. Digger, a Warner Bros film, stars Tom Cruise, a Paramount star and a David Ellison star, playing an executive who is out of control and doesn't care what he's doing to the world, and I wonder if Cruise realizes how brutal that portrayal is of someone so close to him. I haven't seen it myself yet and the reaction so far has been mixed.

Daredevil: Born Again Will End With Season 3

It was officially confirmed in the trades that season 3 will be the final season of Daredevil: Born Again, with no season 4. People in the scoop community had heard this a couple of days earlier, and I'd heard it the week before that. When one of my sources told me, my reaction was simply, "Is this really a surprise?" Daredevil has, as far as I can tell, never trended on Nielsen, even across multiple episodes, maybe popping in briefly toward the end of the run.

The show's showrunner has been let go, and season 3 isn't finished in post, which echoes what happened on The Marvels when its director left partway through to make a film nobody cared about, before redeeming herself with a later film, even though that film underperformed at the box office. Other people will now have to finish wrapping up Daredevil's final season, though it is reportedly pretty close to done already.

Why Daredevil: Born Again Lost Its Audience

The first problem, in my view, was that the show stayed a convention exclusive for too long, debuting trailers only at D23 2024 and Comic-Con rather than to the general fandom, which lost a lot of goodwill after there had been tremendous interest when the revival was first announced. It also leaned too heavily on nostalgia for the Netflix era, which was so long ago that a whole new group of fans simply doesn't care about that original show.

The show also got too political for its own good. Kingpin was a clear Trump parallel, and I thought it was a good one, but that cost the show half its audience, and I don't think the political commentary was strong enough to justify that loss, so it got cut back anyway. On top of that there was just too much Kingpin every season, to the point that even Matt Murdock seemed to be saying, in effect, "I can't believe we're still doing this dance," while the show introduced too little that was actually new.

Then there were way too many set photos, spoiling surprises before they could land. I'd watched season two in advance and thought the ending had some great surprises, but by the time everyone saw set photos for season 3 filming, including Elektra's return, all the interest had already dissipated. The show also felt too much like network TV rather than evolving the way streaming has, and I've long argued Marvel's live action shows belong on Hulu rather than Disney Plus, since shows like Penguin and Lanterns run circles around it while Daredevil, a darker character, should be performing more like it did in the old Netflix days.

Disney Plus also has a bad release pattern for this kind of show. Dropping content at 3am, the way X-Men '97 did, might work for a Netflix binge but is a ridiculous time for weekly drops when Europe is still asleep, and I think that habit helped kill X-Men '97. Disney has since moved to Tuesday evenings, which is a tough night, whereas HBO has carved out Sunday very successfully and Prime Video claimed Thursday for shows like The Boys and Invincible. I think Thursday would be a good night for Disney Plus content, with Tuesday as a fallback, since Agatha did well there.

What This Means for Marvel's Other Disney Plus Shows

There are worrying signs beyond Daredevil. Wonder Man was unrenewed after already being renewed for a second season, which is rarely reversed. At the same time, Disney announced a new show in development under the code name Zodiac, which is a strange contradiction: canceling one show while greenlighting another. I've argued before that Disney Plus shows have hurt theatrical output even when they were good, like Loki and WandaVision, and I think a lot of the trouble with 2025's Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four traces back to that dynamic.

That brings up Vision Quest, the next entry centered on Vision and his creator figure, played by Paul Bettany and James Spader. Some people in the audience have called it sauceless; I wouldn't go that far, but it does look niche, not on the level of Loki, WandaVision or even Agatha. I think Wiccan and Agatha should have been fully part of this show, which would have helped it a lot. As for why WandaVision succeeded, I think people believed at the time that these Disney Plus shows would be much more integrated into the wider films, and once Disney insisted you didn't need to watch the shows to follow the movies and vice versa, the shows lost a lot of momentum.

The Paramount-Warner Bros Merger Settlement, Explained

The only thing still standing between David Ellison and this merger was a joint lawsuit from a group of Democratic-leaning state attorneys general, with a court date set for March by an aggressive judge, plus a ticking penalty fee of $7 million a day starting October 1st that would have topped a billion dollars by the time March arrived. Yet the attorneys general, led by California's Rob Bonta, caved and gave Paramount and Warner Bros a lax deal.

The most important detail is that the deal only lasts five years; after that, Ellison can do whatever he wants with no oversight at all. He doesn't have to sell off any assets, despite earlier discussion that the combined company might be too big. He does have to release 30 theatrical films a year combined, roughly 15 apiece under the Warner Bros and Paramount banners, with a financial penalty if he doesn't, but again only for five years. Those films must follow a 45 day theatrical window before hitting a 90 day subscription video on demand window, and HBO Max and Paramount Plus are set to be combined into a single service.

Under the settlement, the company must also invest $300 million a year in United States production, not just California, since the lawsuit involved multiple states, and it must keep both the Warner Bros and Paramount lots open and active with real productions, not just technically operational, all again only for five years. One of the more ridiculous provisions creates an oversight board meant to check whether news coverage from properties like CNN stays fair, but that board is selected by Paramount itself rather than an impartial third party. "It's the dumbest thing I ever heard," was my reaction, and I compared it to Ron DeSantis's Florida tourism board that was supposed to punish Disney and instead did nothing at all.

Why the States Backed Down

The states thought the $7 million a day fee had Ellison up against the ropes, but I don't think they understood the fire that would light under the Ellisons, who were not going to pay that kind of money, especially given the debt load discussed below. I think there was tremendous pressure behind the scenes, and Bonta didn't want to lose his job over this fight. I think Gavin Newsom, who wants to run for president, doesn't want this merger's collapse pinned on him, and I think he feels this will somehow help him, which put pressure on Bonta to settle.

There was also strong political backing for the deal beyond the state level, including from Trump, while opposition was thin; Mark Ruffalo was largely alone in publicly supporting Bonta's fight. Part of the push, in my view, comes down to how much money certain people stand to make from this deal. I think David Zaslav is going to make half a billion dollars off this deal himself, and he was already worth hundreds of millions. There's also a broader push to change who works in Hollywood and where, and I think that's connected to last week's discussion about Paramount potentially leaving Los Angeles, which I said I was actually in favor of.

What Happens Next as the Deal Closes

Ellison wants this deal closed within two weeks, before the September 30th deadline, to avoid that $7 million daily fee altogether. What he's built is a company on par with Disney, Netflix and Amazon in scale, which is partly why Netflix has started moving more aggressively into theatrical releases, and it raises the question of what Universal, which is spinning off its own entertainment assets from Comcast, will do to compete, possibly by aligning with a company like Apple.

The debt involved is enormous, around 77 billion dollars, which matters because AT&T never managed to escape the debt it took on buying Warner Bros, which is why it eventually sold the studio to Zaslav to be flipped. Ellison is going to have to be hyperfocused on cutting that debt down, and Wall Street is reportedly confident cash flow can grow from 2.16 billion to 8.12 billion by 2030, which would make investors very happy regardless of the cost to employees or the industry.

Massive layoffs are expected, described in one report as being on a scale hard to fathom, especially with AI now part of the conversation. Top executives are reportedly safe, but wherever there is duplication, such as two production, publicity or legal departments, one side is expected to go. Given that Ellison's family money originated with Oracle, I would suspect the combined company moves aggressively into AI, though I want to be clear nothing has actually been reported confirming that. Layoffs are expected to begin before the holidays, timed to the end of the fiscal year.

How This Could Reshape Hollywood Careers

Fewer studios means fewer places to work if you leave one job, and fewer buyers bidding on scripts, which could let buyers dictate lower prices with less competition. That could make the entire industry more corporate, since the specialized way people learn the business by interning inside a studio may fade if outside industries start supplying more hires. It could also make talent agencies and packaging more powerful as a counterweight, though that would make it even harder to break in unless you're already part of an existing package.

I also think the Ellisons are thin skinned and capable of retribution, and I said as much regarding Last Week Tonight, noting I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't renewed, pointing to what already happened with Stephen Colbert as an example. Even if another outlet wanted to pick up a canceled show or a producer, there are simply fewer buyers left to do it, which is the consolidation problem in miniature.

On the creative side, word is that Ellison wants to combine HBO Max and Paramount Plus into a single super service big enough to compete with Disney Plus and Hulu, Netflix and Amazon. There's also reportedly a plan to put an executive in charge of each major brand or IP, similar to how Kevin Feige runs Marvel or how Amy Pascal and David Heyman now run Bond at Amazon. I think that's a good structure in principle, though it remains to be seen whether Ellison finds the right people for it. I don't think James Gunn is going anywhere, since I suspect he and Ellison would get along, though I'd expect an executive to eventually sit above him. I've also said before that David Ellison and Zack Snyder would likely get along well, since someone who has been partly or fully canceled with something to prove tends to be cheaper to hire and more aggressive.

There is also reported discussion that Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, who have been running Warner Bros, could leave even though they are contractually signed through 2030, since Ellison has brought his own team from Skydance, and Sony and Netflix are reportedly already interested in bringing them on elsewhere.

Would this deal ever be enforced if Ellison decided to ignore it? That's a real question given how much this feels unenforceable once five years pass and given how many rules seem to go unenforced generally right now.