Canceled Netflix Show Gets Clean Makeover for Disney+, Says Star
When Daredevil finally returns in his own series for Disney+, do not expect a show as gory as the original Netflix show, star Charlie Cox said in a new interview. Cox played The Man Without Fear in the beloved 2015-2018 series and has slowly returned to the character in new Marvel Studios productions. In 2024, he will return in Daredevil: Born Again, which will run at least 18 episodes.
Marvel fans already saw a surprisingly different take on Daredevil in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law this year. The version of Matt Murdock in the series fit its comedic tone. Matt was "quick-witted and funny and charismatic and carefree at times" in the show, Cox told NME. The Daredevil seen in Born Again will be yet another version of Matt. "This has to be a reincarnation, it has to be different, otherwise why are we doing it?" Cox wondered.
"My opinion is this character works best when he's geared towards a slightly more mature audience," the actor continued. "My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark but it probably won't be as gory."
The new series will also not serve as the Season 4 of Daredevil fans never got, which might disappoint some. "I would say to those people, we've done that," Cox said. "Let's take the things that really worked, but can we broaden? Can we appeal to a slightly younger audience without losing what we've learned about what works?"
While Cox is excited about playing Daredevil again, he was shocked to learn how many episodes he would be making. Disney+ ordered 18 episodes off the bat, meaning he will spend most of 2023 working on the show in New York. "They said to me, 'We're going to be shooting in 2023'," Cox told NME. "I said, 'Great, when?' They said, 'All 2023.' I start shooting in February and finish in December."
The format for Born Again will also be a bit different. While the Netflix series followed one long story in each season, the new show will have an "element to it that is like the old-school procedural" show, Cox said. "Not necessarily case-of-the-week, but something where we go really deep into Matt Murdock the lawyer, and get to see what his life is like," he teased. "If that's done right and he really gets his hands dirty with that world... I think there's something quite interesting about that, to spend a lot of time in a superhero's day-to-day life and you really earn the moments when he suits up."
The first episodes of Born Again are expected to be released in Spring 2024 as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's fifth phase, notes TVLine. Vincent D'Onofrio will return as Kingpin, while Margarita Levieva, Sandrine Holt, and Michael Gandolfini are reportedly in the cast. Matt Corman and Chris Ord are writing the new series.