Charlie Cox Applauds Marvel for ‘Daredevil’ Creative Overhaul: “We Ended Up in the Place We Wanted”
Nearly seven years after Daredevil was canceled at Netflix, Daredevil: Born Again has risen from the ashes.
It’s been a long journey to get here, though, as after three seasons at Netflix and a revival at Disney, the series was paused during the writers and actors strikes, which then led to a full creative overhaul. Dario Scardapane was brought in as the new showrunner with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as directors, after stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio had expressed their concerns to Marvel about where the series was going.
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“One of the most amazing things about working for this company was their ability to look at what we were making, listen to the things Vince and I had to say about it and pivot; decide you know what, this isn’t quite the right direction and we know how we can change it and make it better,” Cox told The Hollywood Reporter at the show’s New York premiere on Monday. “I don’t know many companies that would do that — that takes a lot of personnel, it takes a lot of money, so it’s so cool to be standing here today and feeling thrilled with the product, that we ended up in the place we wanted to be.”
D’Onofrio echoed the support that they’ve had from “all the big bosses all the way down to the crews,” with a particular shout out to the fans, who “made their voices really loud for us and it’s really pretty amazing that we’re here and it has a lot to do with them.” Cox added, “I don’t think without them that we’re stood here right now, honestly.”
The series follows blind lawyer Matt Murdock (played by Cox) as he fights for justice, while former crime boss Wilson Fisk (D’Onofrio) pursues his campaign as the mayor of New York City. With so many years since the first iteration of the show, Cox admitted that while D’Onofrio “had hope, he was convinced” that they would be back, “I thought that was the end of the road, for sure. I’m still pinching myself that we’re stood here, it’s unbelievable.”
Scardapane, who previously worked on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and The Punisher, also spoke on the carpet of the challenges of taking over the show midway, noting, “when you come into something after they’ve looked at it and you have existing material and you’re trying to build context into that, it was daunting but also exciting.”
“As we got in and we realized, ‘Hey, this might work,’ it got really fun and then now seeing it on the screen, seeing it finally kind of land, it’s the best feeling in the world,” the showrunner continued. “And then we’re taking a breath and then on Friday we start shooting season two.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Marvel Television and Disney announced that Jon Bernthal will be reprising his character Frank Castle, aka antihero the Punisher, for a special that will air alongside the second season of Daredevil: Born Again in 2026. Bernthal, meanwhile, makes a Punisher appearance in Daredevil: Born Again season one, which starts streaming on Disney+ March 4.
Neha Joy contributed to this report.
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