While Netflix's Daredevil wasn't perfect, the series still delivered a stellar take on the Man Without Fear. Charlie Cox was rightly praised for his work as Matt Murdock and, after Defenders' creative missteps, season 3 of the hero's solo series proved a return to form.
Unfortunately, that was where the show ended after Netflix pulled the plug on its deal with the previous iteration of Marvel Television in response to Disney+'s launch. Marvel Studios was then forced to wait for years before being able to revive the Hell's Kitchen superhero.
Talking to SFX, Cox explained how exactly this March's Daredevil: Born Again picks up where Daredevil season 3 left off.
"We had to honour certain things about the [original] show, certain tonal aspects, which wasn't being done," the actor said of the revival's creative overhaul. "For example, it wasn't very dark and it is now. At times, it's incredibly sinister, incredibly brutal. These characters work best when they live in that world."
"But it doesn't feel like exactly the same. The pacing is different. The identity has shifted. It's six years later," Cox confirmed. "The kind of shows that people watch on television, they influence how you make a TV show."
"The reason it feels like a hybrid of a season four and a season one is because enough time has passed where you can allow for enough of a reset and things don't need to be explicitly on camera," he said of that six-year time jump. "Matt has come to the realisation that maybe he underestimates collateral damage, and despite all the good he's been trying to do, how much has it actually worked? How much has just spawned more problems?"
"Maybe he needs to put more of his energy into the work he does with the lawyer and helping people out in a legal way. There's a scene where he meets with Kingpin and they say, 'You stay out of my way, I'll stay out of yours, we won't have any problems,'" Cox teased, referring to the meeting we've seen in the show's trailer.
"The rest of the season is a collision course between those two people pushing boundaries and forcing each other to cross lines they don't want to cross," he concluded.
This is pretty much everything fans have been hoping for when it comes to how Daredevil: Born Again will deal with Daredevil. Acknowledging that several years have passed also frees the new series from being forced to address any changes that come as a result of Marvel Studios' input.
That's likely to include The Kingpin being considerably more powerful and Ben Poindexter's return as the costumed villain Bullseye.
In Marvel Television's Daredevil: Born Again, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.
The series also stars Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, with Ayelet Zurer and Jon Bernthal. Dario Scardapane is showrunner.
Daredevil: Born Again premieres on Disney+ on March 4, 2025.