Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, Movies, Preview, streaming, TV | Tagged: daredevil, daredevil: born again, disney, Marvel Studios, netflix

Daredevil: Born Again Before/After Changes "Complicated" to Compare

Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox on the differences before and after the creative change and why it's "complicated" comparing them.

Coming out of Disney's D23 Fan Expo, things are looking pretty great for Marvel Studios' upcoming nine-episode Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Wilson Fisk/Kingpin)-starring Daredevil: Born Again (set to hit Disney+ screens in March 2025). But if you've been following the production backstory of the series, then you know that the streaming series was on a different creative path before the news hit in 2023 that Dario Scardapane (Netflix's The Punisher) had come aboard as showrunner and that the co-directing team of Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (Loki) had stepped up to helm the remainder of the first season. While there have been rumors and gossip rumbling around why the change happened, how much was filmed, and things like that, one thing that's clear is that the series is definitely embracing its Netflix roots. During a panel at Fan EXPO Chicago hosted by Screen Rant this past weekend, Cox was asked to share his thoughts on what was filmed prior to the big chance in comparison to where the series is headed now – with the actor noting that it's a "complicated" matter.

"I'm actually not going to answer that just because it's more complicated. I've read online how that information has been received, and the truth of the matter is it was a lot more complicated than that. A lot of the material that we shot pre-strike is brilliant and is still in the show and works really well. There were just some complicated factors around what we had been tasked to do, and what we were discovering was and wasn't working," Cox shared. "I would hate to answer that and then make it sound like what people were doing before the changes were made was not good or wrong. It is just more complicated than that. I think what I'll say is credit to Marvel that they looked at the episodes and could acknowledge that we could still do better and that we maybe needed to go in a slightly different direction. That's just how it is; we are so lucky to be working for a company that is willing to do that and spend more money to get there. But where we ended up felt really good."

Daredevil: Born Again – Looking Back…

Joining Cox, D'Onofrio, and the returning  Jon Bernthal, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, and Ayelet Zurer (either confirmed or reported) are Margarita Levieva, Michael Gandolfini, Nikki M. James, Genneya Walton, Clark Johnson, Arty Froushan, Zabryna Guevara, Wilson Bethel, Michael Gaston, Marc Geller, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Harris Yulin. Dario Scardapane (Netflix's The Punisher) serves as showrunner, and the co-directing team of Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (Loki) are helming the remainder of the season the first season.

Previous set images/videos featured someone sporting the Punisher's skull – though not Bernthal. That added fuel to the fire that the season will include a storyline about rogue cops perverting the Punisher's cause & symbol to justify their crimes. Someone dropping a whole lot of fuel onto that theory was none other than Bernthal – who took to Instagram to post an image of the cover of One Batch, Two Batch. Yup, Lisa Castle's favorite book before going to sleep – the one that contains "One Batch, Two Batch, Penny and Dime" (which we learn in Netflix's Daredevil S02E04: "Penny and Dime"). Could we be getting a backstory revisit as a reminder of how the Punisher came to be? Here's a look at the post:

Echo Post-Credits Scene Gives New Meaning to "Born Again"?

Without giving away too much about Marvel Studios' Echo, the final showdown between Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) and Kingpin finds Maya using the powers of her Choctaw ancestors to venture into Kingpin's mind to rid him of the pain & rage that's fueled him for so long. Okay, got that? Good… because that leads us to the mid-credits scene. Making a getaway to greener pastures on his private jet, a news report about the New York City mayoral race catches his attention. While the reporter discusses how the city is looking for someone who will fight for them, we see a look on Kingpin's face that says that he believes he could be the answer to NYC's problems. For those of you who are comics fans, you know that Fisk has already recently gone down that route post-"Secret Empire" in a storyline that saw Matt Murdock as deputy mayor and Luke Cage running for office (yeah, there was a lot going on).

But why is this situation so different? Because we don't know which Wilson Fisk wants to be mayor heading into Daredevil: Born Again. We knew what Kingpin we were dealing with pre-Echo, so it would be easy to write this off as just a mad power grab on Kingpin's part. But if all of that pain and rage is now gone, who are we dealing with now? Because "Born Again" takes on a totally different meaning if we're dealing with Fisk legitimately believing he can do right by NYC – that he can be his savior. Throw into that mix the possibility that what Maya did may not stick – maybe Fisk's pain and rage are just too great to stay gone forever. And now that we're thinking about it, having Matt Murdock not believing that Fisk has changed and continuing to target him could also be an interesting way to push Fisk back to his old, big-bad ways.

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