For years, fans were left in the dark on whether Marvel Studios would revive “Daredevil” on Disney+ after the end of its Netflix run. The cast grappled with the same crisis of faith.
“No, I was a cynic,” Deborah Ann Woll, who plays lawyer Karen Page, told Variety on Monday night when asked if she believed Disney would revive the pulp superhero epic. “I was sure it was never coming back.”
But “the devil’s work is never done,” as the poster tagline reads, and the show was born again. The sheer scale of the Marvel revival series was on full display at its New York premiere, fittingly hosted at Disney’s expansive new headquarters in SoHo. The event marks the second time the Mouse House rolled out the red carpet at the Robert A. Iger Building, following the “Beatles ’64” premiere last November.
The original “Daredevil” series, which ran on Netflix from 2015-2018, introduced Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, a blind, justice-obsessed lawyer by day and crime-fighting vigilante by night. “Daredevil: Born Again” was initially conceived as a fresh take on the character with only loose ties to the original series. Midway through production, Marvel overhauled the project, bringing in “The Punisher” writer and producer Dario Scardapane as showrunner to steer it closer to the tone of the Marvel-Netflix universe.
“I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a Season 4, but I would say it’s definitely a continuation,” Scardapane said. “We’re pulling [these characters] seven, eight years forward. It’s as much a different universe as it is when you grow up seven years, when we all go into the future. So it’s got all the DNA, all the history of the old show, but it’s taking us on a different ride.”
That DNA includes the gritty edge that defined “Daredevil.” Early sequences like the one-shot hallway fight and Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) decapitating a man with a car door pushed the boundaries of comic book television. Cox claimed the new season contains “sequences that at least rival that stuff.” D’Onofrio insists it goes even further.
“There’s a couple of scenes that Charlie did — and one scene in particular that I did — that I didn’t think were going to make it into the show,” D’Onofrio teased. “But it’s in the show. The audience has a lot to look forward to.”
Michael Gandolfini was young enough to grow up with the original series and now steps into the revival as Kingpin’s morally conflicted protégé. As a fan, Gandolfini tipped his cap to Disney for embracing the series’ violent nature.
“Ultimately, I was concerned like a lot of the fans,” Gandolfini admitted. “Like, ‘Okay, it’s a new era. It’s a new studio. Are they going to go as dark?’ And I can guarantee you that they do. Thank God. They go completely dark.”
As Marvel weaves Daredevil’s street-level crime world into its vast cinematic universe, characters like the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) are returning to the fold. (Scardapane hinted at more Marvel-Netflix players popping up in Season 2, which begins shooting Friday).
But they’re also pulling from the MCU proper with additions like the Swordsman (Tony Dalton) from “Hawkeye,” which notably had a much lighter tone.
“It’s grittier,” Dalton said. “‘Hawkeye’ was a little more for kids. This is definitely just two guys beating the shit out of each other. I love it.”
Filming next month alongside the second season of “Born Again” is “Avengers: Doomsday,” the opening salvo of Marvel’s climax to the Multiverse Saga. Should the “Daredevil” crew step outside Hell’s Kitchen for the cosmic battle? The cast is split.
“The space madness gives me anxiety,” Woll quipped. “I already feel like the middle schooler at the high school play. I’d like to stay contained where I can fool myself into thinking that we’re just doing this little show.”
Yet Cox and D’Onofrio, smirks in place, are fully on board.
“I want to do it all, I love it all,” Cox said. “So as long as they’ll have me, I’m there.”
