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Two of the biggest stars to re-emerge from Netflix’s “Defenders” era to the MCU are Daredevil’s Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, who reprise their respective roles as Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. With D’Onofrio appearing in the Disney+ series Hawkeye, Cox made a much bigger splash in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home before coming back most recently in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. While both will reunite in Daredevil: Born Again and are rumored to be in Echo, the MCU has plans for Cox to also lend his voice in the animated Spider-Man: Freshman Year. The actor spoke about his return, his recent appearances, and what the future holds for his “The Man Without Fear.”
“I’m not on social media, so I didn’t know any of that stuff,” Cox said when asked how it felt for the hype building up to his She-Hulk debut. “It wasn’t until a friend of mine the other day told me. There was an Easter egg? And everyone thought he was going to appear earlier than he did? And people were really excited, then it didn’t happen? Or something like that? I just know that. When Episode 8 came out, my 16-year-old nephew was staying at my house. He was on Twitter and Instagram, handed me the phone, and showed me these comments and tweets that were coming in. I don’t like to get too deep into that because it’s a bit of a rabbit hole, but I did for a minute see a lot of excitement, a lot of love, and funny emoji.”
When it came to his yellow suit, “When we were getting ready to shoot it, they took me out to Los Angeles to have a suit fitting, which I just assumed was to make sure that the old one still fit. I showed up at this warehouse,” Cox recalled. “Hanging in a bag on a railing was my suit that I recognized as the one I’d worn in the show before. While I was waiting, there was one computer-generated drawing on the wall of some other superhero. I was looking at it, like, ‘Oh, that guy’s cool.’ And then I looked more carefully, and I was like, ‘Wait, that guy’s me.’ It was a rendering of this gold and red suit, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, that is so cool.’ It’s such a great homage to some of the earlier Daredevil runs. I got goosebumps thinking about this moment, putting it on, and the fans’ reaction.
Upon comparing the original Netflix series to Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again, “We’ve never really had an opportunity to explore the levity that there is in the comics. Obviously, Daredevil at his core works better as a show that’s geared toward a more mature audience, but even life that is very serious has comedic moments in it,” Cox said. “I felt like this was a really good opportunity to put Daredevil in a world where tonally, there is a lot more fun to be had; it’s a lot more lighthearted, tongue in cheek. It was a really great experiment, both for me and for the character, to see how we fit into that world. It was just a question of freeing up a little bit and allowing myself as an actor to go toe-to-toe with Tatiana and make sure that Daredevil didn’t become the butt of the joke because he’s overly serious, to make sure he had his charisma, charm, and wits. Whether that will play into what we do next year with ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ I don’t know, but it was certainly a fun experiment.”
As far as if any holdovers from the Netflix series like Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page) or Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson) will appear in Born Again, “It was an absolute delight to work with everyone on all of those shows at Netflix. They were the beating heart of all of those shows. I would be honored and thrilled to work with any of them again. I would hate to single anyone out and I would hate to speculate because I just don’t know what the plan is going forward. That’s way above my pay grade. There are so many great stories to tell. There are stories to tell again. That wouldn’t be inconsistent with what they do in the comic book universe. Often a new writer and artist will take over a book, and they will start from the beginning. So maybe we’ll be doing that, but I genuinely don’t know. I’m just thrilled that I’ve been invited to the party.”
For more on Cox talking about Matt and Jen’s (Tatiana Maslany) relationship, what he’s looking forward to in filming, and more, you can check out the full Variety interview here.
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