Daredevil: Born Again opens with Foggy Nelson being gunned down by Bullseye. As the Man Without Fear savagely beats the villain, he listens as his best friend's heartbeat slows and, eventually, stops.
Killing such a beloved character in the premiere was a ballsy move and, in an interview with GamesRadar+, directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead reflected on filming a scene they knew would be divisive.
"We cannot tell you the amount of thought that was put into basically the first 15 minutes, everything went under a microscope," Benson explained. "But particularly those first 15 minutes, because we're fans of the show, we know how it feels. It felt bad to direct it. We wanted it to feel wrong. It was like, wait, this is the death he gets? You know, just shot on the street out of nowhere. And it feels that way. It feels unfair."
Moorhead added, "I'll be honest, there's still definitely some worry about it, but we realized it's more upsetting than it is anger-inducing. It is upsetting. It upsets us too. The decision to do it was made before we came on, but we figured, if we're gonna do it, then let's do it right. Let's make it the whole season."
In the pre-overhaul version of Daredevil: Born Again, Foggy's death occurred off-screen and Bullseye wasn't part of the plan. Needless to say, if the lawyer had to die, then it happening in a far more impactful way was surely the best possible move.
However, is Foggy really gone? We've already shared our take on that and, in a separate interview with the site, showrunner Dario Scardapane explained how the character's death evolved when he was enlisted to take over from original creative team, Matt Corman and Chris Ord.
He also confirmed we haven't seen the last of Matt Murdock's fellow lawyer in Daredevil: Born Again.
"In a way we amped it up. We embedded it into this massive action sequence," Scardapane revealed. "Your attention is grabbed, you have this heartbeat going, and then when it happens, I think you should walk away with it like, 'Oh my God, everything has just changed. Everything is different now'."
"Listen, he's not gone forever. That's all I can say - it's not the last thing you're gonna see of him," he teased. "So, I understand. We also understand the heartbreak, and we did not take this lightly. I get upset. We were upset on the day, we were upset watching it. All of these things are true."
"This is a type of new origin story for Matt. He's the type of character that in just like all classic Marvel stories, they're affected by some sort of tragedy," he concluded.
Scardapane may be referring to a flashback later this season or potentially confirming rumours that Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson will reprise their roles as Karen Page and Foggy in season 2 when it launches next year. We'll have to wait and see but death is rarely permanent in the Marvel Universe!
"A masterpiece of epic proportions, Daredevil: Born Again delivers a powerful, unmissable take on the Man Without Fear," we said in our review. "Putting street-level heroics on the map in a way that promises to change the MCU forever, the show is sublime superhero storytelling on a whole new level."
Daredevil: Born Again's first two episodes are now streaming on Disney+.