In an interview with NME, Charlie Cox discussed what he thinks the new Daredevil is going to look like now that Disney is producing the show. “My opinion is this character works best when he’s geared towards a slightly more mature audience. My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark but it probably won’t be as gory.”
We’ve already gotten a taste of the new Matt Murdock — he appeared in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law for a few episodes as a love interest of Jen Walters (Tatiana Maslany). The character was “quick-witted and funny and charismatic and carefree at times,” said Cox. True, the sitcom nature of She-Hulk meant that Daredevil’s contemplative brooding wouldn’t go over well in 72-and-sunny Los Angeles. Cox is bringing that same mindset to the new show, saying that, “This has to be a reincarnation, it has to be different, otherwise why are we doing it?”
While I loved the Netflix show, I’m not about to be a stickler for continuity here just because an actor was recast in his previous role. Comics reboot all the time, and Daredevil: Born Again is very likely going to be an all-new story with all-new characters. If you’re expecting a continuation of the 2015 show, Cox says, “We’ve done that. Let’s take the things that really worked, but can we broaden? Can we appeal to a slightly younger audience without losing what we’ve learned about what works?”
It’s a good question! So much of what worked about the 2015 show came not only from Cox’s performance but also the tightly plotted, action-packed, character-driven nature of the first season. Disney+ has been entirely hit or miss on these Marvel shows, almost all of them rating firmly in the middle of the pack with only a few standout scenes carrying the show throughout the season.
However, Disney thinks that Daredevil: Born Again has what it takes to go the distance, as it’s ordered 18 episodes, triple the number of any other live-action Marvel show. Charlie Cox is going to be filming through 2023, and he’s already considering what Daredevil training is going to mean. He also told NME that he “hasn’t seen any scripts or outlines.” But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have ideas.
“I’m imagining there’s going to be an element to it that is like the old-school procedural show. 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,” explained Cox “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.”
The original Netflix show, which ran for three seasons from 2015-18, is now available to watch on Disney+. The new show, titled Daredevil: Born Again, will stream on Disney+ sometime in 2024.
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