Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox has shared his thoughts about how the hero will change, now that he’s getting his own Disney Plus series.
In an interview with NME, Cox appeared excited about the character going through a potential transition. Daredevil had three seasons on Netflix before Disney yanked all its Marvel properties back, but the show was so beloved that it’s earned him another shot at a solo series. According to the actor, this Matt Murdock could have some noticeable differences.
“This has to be a reincarnation, it has to be different, otherwise why are we doing it?”
“My opinion is this character works best when he’s geared towards a slightly more mature audience. My instinct is that on Disney Plus it will be dark but it probably won’t be as gory.”
Cox returned to the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home and again in the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series, which felt like a kind of taste test. Daredevil has a dalliance with Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters and they team up to take down the laughable villain Leap-Frog, but it’s not definite that this more casual Matt Murdock will be the version of the character going forward. She-Hulk is more comedic in nature, so it’s possible Daredevil was changed to fit the tone, and Cox was quick to defend its ‘silly and goofy’ tone.
Some fans will be worried about this potential shift in character. Daredevil is a lauded superhero series — that’s why it’s coming back — and similar to how people wanted Cox back, they also want the story to feel the same. There’s always a fear that Disney will want to make their more hardcore characters more kid-friendly to gain their audience, but fans don’t want it to affect the story. Cox has a message for those fearing change.
“I would say to those people, 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?”
How much will carry over from the old series is still unclear, and that includes its characters. Fans will naturally want to see the characters they know and love to appear in Daredevil: Born Again, but their fates are still up in the air. The production for the new series will film from Feb. 2023 to Dec. 2023 in New York for a 2024 release date, so hopefully there will be some casting news soon.