GQ has published a fantastic new Charlie Cox profile which sees the actor reflect on his career and how landing the role of Matt Murdock in Daredevil turned things around for him. However, he wasn't initially on Marvel's radar for the Man Without Fear.
The actor auditioned for the role and was asked to test in Los Angeles. However, Marvel Television wanted Cox to play Foggy Nelson. "For whatever reason, having had this kind of empowering experience [spending time in the Scottish Highlands], I said, 'I will come, but I’m only reading for Matt. I’m only reading for the lead,'" he recalls.
Cox admits that his career didn't take off the way he expected after landing the lead role in Stardust and, while an impressive supporting turn in Boardwalk Empire followed, he knew Daredevil could be make or break for him. Then, in 2018, it all came to an end.
"I got a call late at night, and my boss at Marvel television at the time said, 'They’ve pulled all the shows. All five of them,'" Cox says. "There was some ... I don’t know, it was a conversation about the politics behind it all, some feud between Netflix and Disney. My bosses at Netflix and Marvel all called and were very nice, and very polite, but it was done."
Netflix scrapped the shows in response to Disney+'s planned launch and, following a two-year wait, Daredevil and his fellow Defenders were returned to Marvel Studios.
"[Vincent D'Onofrio would] always say, 'Oh, they’ll bring us back,'" Cox remembers. "And I used to say to my wife, 'He’s delusional. He’s got to move on.'"
Then, he met Kevin Feige at a performance of a play he was starring in, Betrayal, in New York. "I went to shake his hand, and he was nice and enjoyed the play, but never mentioned Daredevil, never mentioned me. I thought maybe he’d at least say, Oh, I liked the show,' but he didn’t say that."
The Marvel Studios President did eventually call in the summer of 2020. "I thought it was maybe going to be a charity thing. Like, 'Can we all get together and do some video.' And then he said, 'Are you interested in coming back?' They said, 'It's going to be something in Spider-Man, probably a cameo in She-Hulk, and then we’ll see.'"
Cox agreed and now, Daredevil Born Again is weeks away from premiering on Disney+. The actor has already appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Echo but will finally take centre stage in his own MCU-set series beginning March 4.
Cameras are already rolling on the show's planned second season, with that likely to premiere on the streaming platform next year.