Matt Murdock is back in Daredevil: Born Again, and there are some big changes blowing through Hells Kitchen and New York City.
It’s been nearly seven years since the original Daredevil ended, but it almost feels like the new series picks up right where the last finished. Charlie Cox is back as our vengeful hero, with mob boss Wilson Fisk–played masterfully once again by Vincent D’Onofrio–aiming to become the mayor of the city. We don’t know what he’s up to, but as Murdock guesses, it can’t be anything good.
Crime and punishment play a big part in the story–with Deborah Ann Woll back again as Karen Page, along with Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson–but the battle of wills is really the big story.
“He ends up going down a path which I think is best described as a band aid, that will have to be ripped off. Slowly and painfully,” Cox said of Murdock in the new series. “But, for fans of the original show, it’s the same Matt Murdock, essentially, just influenced by his experiences.”
Where the series draws a fine line is the rare moments where Murdock and Fisk end up face-to-face.
“Although we’re trying to live in the daylight, the two of us… we’re broken,” D’Onofrio said.
He compared the two characters to “vampires trying to live in the daylight,” and that the real key is simple: “You can’t put us together in the same scene a lot because it’s not as powerful if you do that.”
“It’s great for the story because it always means something. It’s always either the beginning of something or the end of something, or both.”
“Bringing us together early on in this new season is something we haven’t done before,” Cox said, “and putting them in a position where they are having to trust one another’s ability to stay true to who they say they are, it just lends itself to a slightly different dynamic.”
This is where the push and pull begins, and it’s hard to say where it ends. And is Fisk really turning over a new leaf, in his bid to be mayor?
“He’s on a mission,” D’Onofrio said. “He’s the same guy… but he’s got a new plan. First thing he’s got to do is sort things out with his wife, because he’s been gone for a while. That turns into something extremely exciting, and then there’s the other side, which is [his] plan.”
“His plan is to stretch his reach. It’s the beginning of that; how far he’s going to go for control. It’s a struggle because he has to live in the daylight to do that… in the spotlight.”
Series creator Dario Scardapane worked hard to find the heart of the character, and the new series, while staying true to the original series, too.
“The thing about Daredevil was the mixture of heart and muscle, and there’s a humanity to both of these characters, and there’s a struggle that both of them have with their dark passengers, and then they’re battling each other,” Scardapane said. “So you always kind of try and find that humanity inside of a heightened world with the action that every time is trying to reset the bar for television.”
“You want to do really, really high octane action. You want to have moments of depth of character, and then you want to put these two brining off each other across the city. And that’s the funny thing; we put them together, kind of shake them up and then let them go. I think they did that brilliantly in the earlier show, and we were just trying to be an evolution of that.”
There are also new characters that play a big part in the series, and that includes the mysterious Muse.
“Inside the story of these two [Murdock and Fisk], there are stressors that come in, and I would say Muse is one of those stressors. What happens with Muse creates a ripple effect that actually goes past this season into the future,” Scardapane said. “But that’s about all I could say. What exactly happens and what effect it has on these two? I’m keeping my mouth shut about.”
“It’s fair to say that it’s scary, dark, and creepy.”
The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again launches on Disney+ on March 4, 2025 at 9:00 PM (ET) and 6:00 PM (PT). New episodes will premiere weekly, with the finale, episode 9, launching on April 15.
Photos courtesy of Marvel Television.
