Criminals of Hell's Kitchen, beware -- Matt Murdock is returning to the streets!
Marvel announced at San Diego Comic-Con last summer that Charlie Cox would be reprising his role as the masked vigilante in an upcoming Disney+ series, Daredevil: Born Again, following cameos in She-Hulk and Spider-Man: No Way Home.
When ET spoke with Cox at Disney's D23 Expo last fall, he said he was "really emotional" to be playing Daredevil again, nearly a decade after originating the character in Netflix's Daredevil series, which was canceled in 2018 after three seasons.
"It's a bizarre experience to have played this character, to have the experiences I've had with this character, and the journey we've been on with the show, for that to be finished and ended -- in my mind and heart, it's over -- and then to be yanked back in and suddenly we're starting again and it's all happening again," he admitted. "It feels a bit like a dream."
Read on for everything we know so far about Daredevil: Born Again, and check back for updates!
THE CAST
In addition to Cox, Born Again will also feature the returns of Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, and Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher -- both of whom appeared in several of the Netflix MCU shows.
"I think there's a lot of facets of this character that haven't been explored yet. And I really want to do that," D'Onofrio told ET in December 2021, following his own cameo in the Hawkeye Disney+ series. "When I was doing research for Daredevil and trying to develop how I was going to play him... I think I read everything, basically, and there are so many storylines that I would like to explore."
In March, however, The Hollywood Reporter shared that Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll were "not expected to return" to reprise their Daredevil roles as Foggy Nelson and Karen Page for the new series.
House of Cards star Sandrine Holt is also set to join the cast as Vanessa Fisk, Wilson's wife, replacing Ayelet Zurer, who played the character on the Netflix series.
Additionally, Michael Gandolfini, Margarita Levieva, Nikki M. James, Michael Gaston, and Arty Froushan have been cast in undisclosed roles.
At D23, ET asked Cox who else he'd like to work with on the upcoming show. Fresh off his "flirty" She-Hulk appearance, Cox was quick to throw out Tatiana Maslany's name, noting, "We only got that one episode, so it'd be really cool if she was to come and maybe do a little arc in our show."
Referencing his No Way Home cameo and a possible reunion with Tom Holland's webslinger, Cox also noted, "the Matt Murdock-Peter Parker stuff is a treasure trove of stuff to unpack. We just got that little moment... I have no idea what they're thinking. I don't know where I'm gonna find the time, 'cause I'm doing 18 episodes."
And, as a wild card?
"I don't know what the rules are always, so I don't know, I'm probably speaking out of turn, but Tom Hiddleston's one of my best friends," he shared. "It'd be so cool -- even if he just kinda shows up holding the Tesseract for a minute and then he's gone again, that'd be really fun."
Longtime pals, Cox and Hiddleston dressed as each other's Marvel character for Halloween 2019.
THE STORY
In true Marvel fashion, very little is known about the plot of the series, and how it may or may not be connected to the Netflix storyline. When ET spoke with Cox at D23 in September 2022, he admitted that he was happy to "know what everyone else knows" about Born Again, which was not much at the time.
"[It's] a great feeling, 'cause I can't spoil anything," he laughed. "I haven't read anything-- I'm psyched to discover what stories they're gonna tell over that long period of time, tonally, what it's gonna be like, how is it different, how is it the same, you know?"
The actor added that Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige "has been very clear" about Daredevil: Born Again being "season 1 not a season 4," hinting that the new series will not pick up where the Netflix show left off.
"It's a whole new deal, and in a way, that's what's great about that, is that we potentially get to tell some of the stories over and over again, in the same way that they do in the comics," Cox pointed out. "Every now and again, they start back at the beginning of Murdock's journey as a little boy, and they tell the whole origin story again -- so maybe we'll get to do that, I don't know."
However, some eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice a key detail in set pictures that surfaced when Cox started filming Born Again in New York City. In one scene, Matt is shown walking past a church, and the date on a sign out front reads "March 15, 2020." This has led many to speculate that the series may be set in the five-year gap caused by the infamous Thanos blip -- which happened in 2018, per Avengers: Infinity War.
If the theory proves correct, it could be one way of explaining away the absence of characters like Foggy and Karen, who may have been "blipped."
In a March 2023 interview with Newsweek, D'Onofrio said the Born Again plot is "something that people are not going to expect."
"Always with these old Marvel comic stories that are being revisited and reinvented by us actors, and the writers, the main thing is to answer the fans -- to give them what they want but try to be original in some way at the same time, and so that's what we're doing on the show," he added. "It's definitely an original way to look at this, and it's really deep, really emotional."
THE DETAILS
For now, we know Daredevil: Born Again is set for an 18-episode first season, with Homeland vet Michael Cuesta set to direct the first episode.
The series is also officially part of Marvel's Phase 5, and will share continuity with the MCU films -- something that was murkier when it came to Netflix's Marvel series.
In his Newsweek interview, D'Onofrio hinted that plans for a second season of Born Again were already underway.
"By the second season, there are gigantic, gigantic payoffs—in the first season, too, but I can't say much about that—but the fans are gonna really get what they want," he shared. "It's really quite cool to be doing it."
Daredevil: Born Again is set to stream on Disney+ in spring 2024.
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