Daredevil: Born Againfocuses on the gritty, grounded story of Matt Murdock and his ongoing confrontation with Wilson Fisk, now Mayor of New York, expanding on the events of the originalDaredevilshow on Netflix, but the Disney+ series nearly turned out to be something entirely different.Charlie Coxhas revealed that an earlier version ofDaredevil: Born Againleaned more into the realm of the fantastical, with ties to the MCU’s multiverse and a storyline that featured “variants” of Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, and Karen Page.
During a recent appearance on Deadline’s Crew Call podcast, Cox spoke candidly about some of the ideas that were on the table beforeDaredevil: Born Againunderwent a significant creative overhaul. He explained that Marvel originally wanted the series to “be a reset,” building on the ideas presented in the Disney+ seriesLoki, which is more of a sci-fi fantasy adventure. He then revealed that the storyline was going to focus on “another version” of the Hell’s Kitchen heroes “existing in this world,” but detached from the Netflix series, saying:
Every Season of ‘Daredevil,’ Ranked (Including ‘Born Again’)
‘Daredevil’ has brought excellent stories to the small screen for a decade now, with each season bringing something new to the table.
“One of the things the original team wanted to do was they wanted to keep Vincent [D’Onofrio] and I. They wanted to keep us, [but] they didn’t want to alienate the audience who hadn’t watched the [Netflix] show. They wanted it to kind of be a reset. So there was a conversation about it being almost like a variant. You know, in theLokishow, we talk about these variants. It was almost like it was a variant – and we never said that – but it was almost like a variant. So, it was another version of these characters existing in this world.”
Marvel Studios made the decision to overhaulDaredevil: Born Againin September 2023 after initially developing ideas for it with Matt Corman and Chris Ord. Dario Scardapane was brought in as the new showrunner,along with new directors, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The retread aimed to connect the series more directly with the Netflix show and bring back some of the original characters who were not part of the initial plan. It must have also been around this time that they reverted to the show being a more action-heavy story.
Why Did Marvel Change Direction?
Cox said that, with the new team, Marvel decided to change direction because the original idea ended up being too confusing to navigate. It was somewhat of a relief for the actor as he was"not 100% convinced" about the plan, and it would have been challenging for him to portray his character convincingly, given his history in the Netflix series. He said people “didn’t think [he] was a variant, they thought [he] was being disingenuous,” as it was difficult to view the new version of the story as separate from the past. He explained further:
“That’s a valid choice, it’s a fun idea. The problem became that whenever I said something that was in contrast to what we’d shot in the past, people thought I was lying. They didn’t think I was a variant, they thought I was being disingenuous. It was a nice idea; it just didn’t pan out.”
Season 2 ofDaredevil: Born Againis currently filming in New York City and is expected to premiere on Disney+ in March 2026 as part of Phase 6 of the MCU. The next batch of episodes will pick up where the last season left off, with Matt Murdock assembling an army of superpowered allies to fight back against the Anti-Vigilante Task Force. It is expected to incorporate more elements from the original Netflix series, including continuing story arcs andbringing back fan-favorite characters, as well as anew iteration of one returning vigilante.
Source:DeadlineviaThe Direct
Daredevil: Born Again
