When Netflix cancelled Daredevil back in late 2018 after three seasons, naturally the assumption was that this was the last we’d see of Charlie Cox as the title character. But over time, there were rumblings that Cox would reprise Marvel Comics’ Man Without Fear within the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper, and sure enough, he briefly appeared as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and that was followed by a full Daredevil return in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Former Daredevil showrunner Steven DeKnight has now thrown some praise Cox’s way for the latter project, as well as clarified his thoughts on the character’s upcoming Disney+ show, Daredevil: Born Again.
DeKnight, whose other credits include Spartacus, Angel, Smallville and Jupiter’s Legacy, was Daredevil Season 1’s showrunner, taking over those duties from Drew Goddard and passing them along to Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez for Season 2. Of course, while Daredevil was a pretty dark show, Cox’s Matt Murdock was appropriately treated with a lighter hand in the comedic She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, but that didn’t bother DeKnight. As he told a fan on Twitter who inquired:
Loved the lighter take. Just like in the comics, there are many different interpretations of the character. And Charlie Cox was absolutely delightful, as always!
Steven DeKnight’s correct, while Daredevil is often thought of as a darker character thanks to runs from writers like Frank Miller, Brian Bendis and Ed Brubaker, just like Batman, the character has also had lighthearted periods, from his early Silver Age appearances to much of Mark Waid’s run. So while the funnier way Charlie Cox played Daredevil in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law would have felt out of place in the original Daredevil show, that doesn’t make his depiction any less valid. Cox’s Matt teamed up with Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters in “Ribbit and Rip It” after briefly squaring off against each other in court, and by the end of the season finale, titled “Whose Show Is This?”, he was abruptly brought back by K.E.V.I.N. and seen meeting the super heroine’s family.
While it remains to be seen if Matt and Jennifer will continue to be romantically involved MCU, Charlie Cox at least has a bright future as Daredevil ahead of him regardless. He’ll next appear in Echo, which will drop all its episodes to Disney+ subscribers at once sometime in January, and then Daredevil: Born Again will premiere at a yet-to-be-announced date. Earlier this week, Steven DeKnight said that the Daredevil TV show being “an old Disney scam where they slightly rename a series to reset contract terms back to first season,” and that it needs to “be addressed by all the guilds/unions and crushed.”
When an article was published framing DeKnight’s thoughts as criticizing Disney and Marvel for rebooting the Daredevil series rather than making a fourth season of the original show, he made it clear this wasn’t the case and said the following about Born Again in another tweet:
Yeah, not at all what I actually said. This was talking about the tactic of slightly changing a show’s name to avoid paying the original creatives or triggering a raise for the crew. I fully support the new show and hope it does very, very well.
Created by showrunners Matt Corman and Chris Ord, Daredevil: Born Again already has a second season being planned, and the first season will consist of 18 episodes. Principal photography began in early March 2023, but experienced various production shutdowns in May and early June as a result of the writers strike, followed by cameras shutting down for good in mid-June until the strike is over. Cox is joined in the Born Again cast by fellow Marvel Netflix alums Vincent D’Onofrio and Jon Bernthal, who are respectively reprising Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (who returned in Hawkeye and is also appearing in Echo) and Frank Castle/The Punisher. The lineup of newcomers includes Michael Gandolfini, Margarita Levieva, Nikki M. James, Michal Gaston, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson (who’s also directing) and Marc Geller.
As soon as Daredevil: Born Again resumes production and more concrete details about the show come to light, we’ll let you know. Until then, head to Disney+ to stream the original Daredevil series and nearly every other MCU project, or learn what other upcoming Marvel TV shows are on the way.
