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Marvel Studios is about to release Daredevil Born Again and early reactions have been nothing less than spectacular. But the show is more than just a return to form for the Man Without Fear, it marks a dramatic shift in Marvel’s strategy for television.

Marvel’s long been criticized for their approach of making shows that feel like long movies. The six-episode formula has gotten repetitive and doesn’t allow for shows to thrive in the way that shows on HBO or Netflix do. And with each show being treated as a limited series, there’s very little room to grow an audience across multiple seasons.

All of that seems to be changing. Recent interviews with Marvel Television Exec Brad Winderbaum show a glimpse at how the studio is addressing these issues and it all starts with Daredevil Born Again.

Multi-Season Series Releasing Annually

Marvel Television’s focus on limited series is a weak point. Fans will fall in love with a character and then feel forgotten when they seemingly go MIA. We still don’t know when we’ll see Moon Knight again after three years.

Daredevil Born Again is Marvel Television’s first true multi-season show. Season 2 is confirmed to be filming right now and will release next year with season 3 a year after that. As more studios started releasing seasons every two-years, Brad Winderbaum emphasized the importance of annual seasons.

“I think Marvel Television has happened in waves, and I think Moon Knight happened in a wave of shows that were going to establish characters that would tie-in to the future. And Moving forward our priorities have shifted… we’re making shows as shows that can exist as annual releases, more like television.”

–Brad Winderbaum to Comicbook.com

This will help fix Marvel’s problem of not utilizing their characters enough. It will also help Disney+ in a big way. The service has struggled to release shows that people love like other streamers do. Annual releases will be an event that gets people talking and gives subscribers a reason to keep coming back. But the most important change isn’t with annual seasons, it’s their shift towards a classic approach to television.

Taking the Typical Approach to Television

Marvel’s six-episode structure brought out the worst in the MCU formula. It highlighted bad villains and turned weak third acts into weak finales. Weekly viewing loses its appeal when no episode has a complete narrative. Compare the weekly viewing experience of these shows to that of Game of Thrones or Succession. None have created that kind of weekly excitement outside of WandaVision.

Marvel admitted to developing these shows more like movies than shows. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Marvel “didn’t commission pilots but instead shot entire $150 million-plus seasons of TV on the fly. It didn’t hire showrunners, but instead depended on film executives to run its series.”

They will now commission pilots, utilize showrunners, and create show bibles just like a regular show would. It’s kind of wild that it took Marvel this long to realize the secret to success in television is to treat it like television. This will greatly improve the quality of their shows if all goes well.

Couple this with the focus on multiple seasons and Marvel seems to have learned all the right lessons. These shows will feel like shows and keep the excitement building week after week and year after year.

What’s in Store for Daredevil and the Future of Marvel Television?

Daredevil Born Again is just the start of this rehaul. It’s already been announced that Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will release seasons annually and that X-Men 97 will span at least three seasons. It’s safe to say that all future shows going into production will take this new television approach.

But we’re not out of the woods yet. Ironheart, releasing June this year, has been in production for years and will probably feel more like the old shows than the new ones. Though, who knows what kind of reshoots and overhauls it went through. Wonder Man will probably take the new approach to television despite so little being known about that show.

Not many new shows have been confirmed. Vision Quest, set to release next year, is the only new show that we know is happening. Marvel’s expressed their desire for a season 2 of Agatha All Along and Hawkeye, though nothing has been confirmed. Despite how positive this shift seems, multiple shows have been paused including Nova, Strange Academy, and Terror Inc. I would’ve loved to see these shows (especially Strange Academy) but I’d rather see a handful of great shows than a ton of okay ones.

There is a lot of potential for Marvel on television. These changes are definitely a step in the right direction. Only time will tell if they were enough to fully change course, but if the reactions to Daredevil Born Again are any indication, we seem to be in good hands.

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The first two episodes of Daredevil Born Again premiere March 4.