Charlie Cox Is Pumped To Put A New Spin On Matt Murdock In Daredevil: Born Again
Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the character of Daredevil already know that the MCU's version of the character has a big future. Charlie Cox, who starred on the "Daredevil" Netflix series and in memorable cameos in both "Spider-Man: No Way Home" and "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law,” is set to return in a new series on Disney+ entitled "Daredevil: Born Again." And those fans doubtlessly have sky-high expectations for the return of Matt Murdock, do-gooding attorney by day and crime fighting vigilante by night. They're joined in that excitement by Cox himself, who recently teased a new but true-to-spirit take on the character for the upcoming series.
As viewers of the Netflix Marvel offerings know, "Daredevil" and its companion shows like "Jessica Jones," "Luke Cage," and "Iron Fist" shared a significantly darker sensibility than the big screen MCU outings that were coming out at the same time. The big question for "Born Again," then, is exactly how dark the show will be compared to its predecessor featuring The Man Without Fear.
While MCU cast members usually need to do everything they can to keep details about upcoming projects close to the chest, Cox says that he's actually in the dark on what exactly is in store for the radar-assisted superhero in his new series. But he did reveal in a recent interview that he's as excited as anyone to take part in the character's new direction.
Cox will begin filming the show soon
Charlie Cox recently sat down for an interview with NME, and naturally his upcoming series "Daredevil: Born Again" came up in the conversation. But he has bad news for any fans hoping to see a direct continuation of the dark and sometimes violent adventures they're accustomed to from the older "Daredevil" show. "This has to be a reincarnation, it has to be different, otherwise why are we doing it?" he asks.
Matt Murdock's appearance on "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" might give fans a clue as to the lighter tone of the upcoming series, but Cox also grants that the character does have a mature streak that shouldn't be ignored. "My opinion is this character works best when he's geared towards a slightly more mature audience," the actor explained. "My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark but it probably won't be as gory."
Of course, that's just Cox's own take on the material, and we won't know for sure what to expect from the new show until it hits our screens sometime in 2024. Cox says the show hasn't even started filming yet, and that when it does it will take a bit longer than usual for a pretty intriguing reason.
Daredevil: Born Again will run for a whopping 18 episodes
"They said to me, 'We're going to be shooting in 2023,'" Charlie Cox remembered. "I said, 'Great, when?' They said, 'All 2023.' I start shooting in February and finish in December." That's because, contrary to the usual short-and-sweet streaming seasons consisting of ten episodes or even fewer, "Daredevil: Born Again" is scheduled to run 18 episodes. And that longer season is one of the things that excites Cox the most about the new show.
"I'm fascinated to discover why they've chosen to do 18 ... I'm imagining there's going to be an element to it that is like the old-school procedural show," Cox speculated. "Not necessarily case-of-the-week, but something where we go really deep into Matt Murdock the lawyer and get to see what his life is like. If that's done right and he really gets his hands dirty with that world ... I think there's something quite interesting about that, to spend a lot of time in a superhero's day-to-day life and you really earn the moments when he suits up."
Since Daredevil has a day job as a working lawyer, there's a lot of potential in the idea of doing a "Daredevil" series that doubles as a legal procedural, with plenty of onscreen action in the courtroom, an approach that is also somewhat taken by "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law," starring the Marvel Universe's other part-time superhero/full-time attorney.
Fans will just have to wait all the way until sometime in 2024, when "Daredevil: Born Again" is set to begin streaming on Disney+, to find out exactly what the show will be like -– and whether Cox's enthusiasm for the project was justified all along.