Note: MAJOR spoilers ahead for the Season 2 finale of “Daredevil: Born Again.” If you haven’t watched yet, you may want to turn back!
It’s official: all of New York now knows who Daredevil really is. And Charlie Cox has no interest in undoing that.
The Season 2 finale of the Marvel series is now streaming on Disney+, and it sees the continued trial of Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll). As part of the effort to exonerate her, Matt (Cox) calls Mayor Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) himself to the stand. As things get more intense, Matt baits Fisk with his knowledge of Daredevil and, in a shocking move to many, ends the trial by revealing himself to be the masked vigilante.
Sitting down with TheWrap at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) in March, Cox noted that this is a decision he was made aware of before they even started shooting Season 2. He and D’Onofrio were told during a phone call with Marvel TV head Brad Winderbaum, and “Daredevil: Born Again” EPs Sana Amanat and Dario Scardapane.
“It was like, Okay, this is a big challenge. It’s shocking. I think at that point I thought maybe that would be the final season,” Cox admitted. “So I was a little shocked to learn quite soon after that we were going to do another one.“
That said, Cox was ready to lean into the twist, and very supportive of “big, bold ideas.” He did have a caveat, though.
“There was a silence, and I think I said, Okay, it’s a genie I don’t think we can put back in the box. Or at least, I don’t want to put it back in the box.“
So no, you shouldn’t expect “Daredevil: Born Again” to take the “Spider-Man: No Way Home” route and find a way to undo the reveal. Cox was quick to note that there is indeed a “Daredevil” comic book arc, in which the children of Purple Man, aka Kilgrave, are able to use their powers to convince the world that Matt Murdock and Daredevil are two different people. But Cox wasn’t interested in pursuing that storyline.
“That was kind of fun, and cool, and interesting,” he conceded. “Because obviously, Kilgrave does exist in our universe, wonderfully played by David Tennant. I really would like to see him kind of make a return of some sort, but I think he’s a very, very busy man.”
Indeed, Tennant played the terrifying villain in Season 1 of “Jessica Jones,” alongside Krysten Ritter, who did return for “Born Again.” For the record, Cox would also love to cross over with other MCU characters too.
“I mean all of the obvious ones,” he said. “It’d be so cool to kind of have some kind of crossover with all of the Avengers, with Spider-Man as Daredevil, rather than as Matt Murdock, all of that kind of stuff.”
“I will say that I did have a particularly good time with Tatiana [Maslany in ‘She-Hulk’]. I happen to think she’s one of the most talented actors of my generation, and what she did with that character, I thought was tremendous, because the tone of that is really difficult.”
Still, he swears he’s not in “Avengers: Doomsday.” For now, he’s just looking ahead to Season 3 of “Daredevil: Born Again,” which is currently filming. And really, the actor admitted that it’s “so hard for me to fathom” that he’s even got more time with the character in front of him.
“Daredevil: Born Again” remains the only live-action Marvel series on Disney+ to get a third season, and has really become the anchor of their TV efforts.
“Honestly, I still am pinching myself. It’s still bonkers to me that I’m still making this show, and that I’m still able to play this character,” Cox said. “I’m so grateful for it. I’m so grateful for the trust they’ve had in us, and particularly grateful for the kind of U-turn they made during season one.”
“They really listened to us, and, you know, they were honest with themselves about what was working, what wasn’t. As awful as the strike has been for so many people and so many shows, it was one of the best things that happened for us, for our show, because it gave us that pause to really look at everything.”
Granted, it’s a bit harder to navigate the spoiler landscape than it was during the Netflix days of “Daredevil.”
“I mean, I went on Jimmy Kimmel last week, the second half of the interview is him trying to get out of me whether I’m Spider-Man,” Cox said.
“Those questions very quickly died away at Netflix, because I think people understood, from a business perspective, it was a very difficult thing to marry.”
“But now that we are — having made these kind of mini-splashes with me in [‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’], Vincent in ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Echo,’ it’s on the table, it’s on the cards. It’s possible, it’s available, and Jon [Bernthal] now going into [‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’] as well.”
So, where does “Daredevil: Born Again” go from here?
Well, Matt’s finale gamble pays off. Karen goes free, Fisk is ousted as Mayor and agrees to leave New York, and Fisk’s task force is sent to jail. The thing is, Matt himself is also arrested, and in prison with those men and more. Cox can’t tease much about specifics, but does note that Matt will be bearded next season, “which is a very fun and different look.”
“There is an excellent ‘Daredevil’ run in the comics that this season, at least at the beginning, pays homage to, which is really, really fun,” he teased. “So when I knew about that, I was very excited, because it’s a very, very cool storyline.”
“It’s a very different, very cool dynamic to see, you know, Matt Murdock in that environment, bearing in mind things like the kind of people he’s with are the people he put in there.”
“Daredevil: Born Again” is now streaming on Disney+.
