While there’s still just under a year until the audience can judge the finished product, the changes to Daredevil: Born Again that came out of the Hollywood work stoppage and a subsequent change in the creative team behind the series certainly seemed to have put a spring in the step of its two stars. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio have had nothing but high praise for the new direction of the series under showrunner Dario Scardapane and directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead and during Disney’s TV Upfront presentation, they gave some insight into just how much the new team changed the course of the show.
While talking to TV Insider, Cox noted that Daredevil: Born Again will share “a lot” of connectivity with Netflix’s Daredevil series. While that won’t surprise fans who saw a slew of set photos confirm the returns of Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, Wilson Bethel, Jon Bernthal and Ayelet Zurer, D’Onofrio provided a bit more insight about just how significant the changes made to the series were.
“It originally wasn’t going to be at all, but now it’s a lot,” said D’Onofrio about how much the new D+ series was originally intended to reference the Netflix show. D’Onofrio‘s comments confirm what was a contentious point among fans that had been debated since the show was announced. Following a 2022 presentation about Daredevil: Born Again at D23, Cox indicated that Kevin Feige‘s plan was for the series to be about “new stories and new ideas“, saying the series was “A Season 1. It is not Season 4, so it is a whole new thing. Which I think is the way to go. If you are going to do it again, do it differently.” That sentiment was something Cox reiterated just a month later, calling the series “a whole new deal” while indicating he was looking forward to the opportunity to retell some bits of Matt Murdock’s story.
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. Every now and then they start back in 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.
-Charlie Cox, October 2022
What was true then is clearly not true now, however, and according to Cox, the fans of the Netflix series most definitely had some influence on the changes to the series. “I think [it’s] the fans. I think [it’s] the studio as well,” said Cox. “That’s a really fine balance to strike. If you’re going to remake a show and call it Season 1 and it was a successful show and it was kind of beloved, then you’ve got to do what people liked,” Cox explained. “But also you’ve got to have a reason for remaking it. So you have to change it up a bit. And that’s just a really fine balance to find.”
And just as Daredevil’s enhanced senses include a heightened vestibular sense that gives the Man Without Fear an uncanny ability to center and balance himself, Cox thinks Marvel Studio may have found the sweet spot of balance in mixing old and new. “I think that they’ve done a beautiful job doing that,” he said. “And hopefully, the old fans – the O.G.s – will love it and also, we’ll maybe pick up a few more fans on the way.“
Daredevil: Born Again will stream on Disney Plus beginning in March 2025.
Source: TV Insider
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