Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, TV | Tagged: daredevil, daredevil: born again

Daredevil: Born Again Star Charlie Cox on Being Accepted Into The MCU

Charlie Cox reflects on his MCU journey from Netflix's Daredevil to Disney+'s Daredevil: Born Again and feeling "a part of the fam" now.

Charlie Cox hasn't traveled a conventional path when it comes to his journey in Marvel since it started in 2015 as part of a block of more adult-oriented original programming for Netflix that focuses on a group of more grounded heroes called The Defenders, and leading the way was his incarnation of Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil. During his three-season run on top of his run on the maligned team-up limited series, Cox, along with Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, and Vincent D'Onofrio, comprised the core characters of Matt, Karen Page, Foggy Nelson, and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin on Daredevil, which Drew Goddard developed. Cox, who was able to reprise his role for Daredevil: Born Again for Disney+ along with the aforementioned trio and Netflix series' season two addition Jon Bernthal, who played Frank Castle/The Punisher, was joined by Heartstopper and Agatha All Along star Joe Locke as part of Variety's "Actors on Actors" to talk about their respective journeys.

Daredevil: Born Again Star Charlie Cox on Comparing His Netflix and Disney+ Worlds and Resources

Locke, who played Wiccan in the Jac Schaeffer series, revealed that he was a fan of the Goddard series and saw it when he was 12, "My mum still wouldn't let me watch it. But I used to love how gory it was and how grown up. Because I was a very grown-up kid, so I liked watching grown-up stuff," he said. "I liked how real it was. And your performance is so grounded in the realness."

Cox discussed the secret of Daredevil's success: "It's funny how you happen upon things that end up striking a chord with audiences. We didn't have the same budget as Marvel Studios, so everything had to be practical. We didn't have any CGI. And it's bizarre, therefore, that one of the things the show has been beloved for is how authentic a lot of it feels — particularly the action." Nearly 10 years later, when he filmed the first season of the Disney+ series, the actor revealed that it wasn't as easy this go around.
"My body is not what it was, so the recovery time takes a little bit longer. But I'm so aware of there being a shelf life on how long you get to play a part that has not only beautifully written scene work [but also] fully developed characters and relationships between them all. It literally feels like a different side to the show where I suit up and I do all this cool action," Cox said.

When the call came from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, Cox would slowly wean himself back in, starting with 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home in a cameo appearance as Matt, not his more heroic counterpart. He would make his way into two more appearances on Disney+ shows with the Tatiana Maslany-starred She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and the Alaqua Cox-starred Echo. D'Onofrio would go on a similar journey with his appearance in the Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld-starred Hawkeye, and a much more significant presence in Echo. With Born Again, Cox and D'Onofrio were back at it as they were in the Netflix original series, but under showrunner Dario Scardapane, who worked on Netflix's The Punisher. Woll and Henson would be far less involved with Henson's character getting killed in the first episode, and Woll would be in a few episodes. Both will return for season two.

As far as how Cox felt about his experience with Netflix along with his The Defenders co-stars like Jessica Jones' Krysten Ritter (who returns for Born Again season two), Luke Cage's Mike Colter, and Iron Fist's Finn Jones, "We always used to joke about feeling like we're the stepkids," Cox said adding when it comes to properly joining the Disney family as the streamer allowed Born Again to retain its predecessor's grit and violence, "It does. It feels a little bit more like we're a part of the fam. I'm not on social media, so I don't really follow this conversation, but I know from other castmates that it's important to the fan base that the Marvel Cinematic Universe is all connected. So there was a lot of pleasure from the fans that the previous show was considered canon."

You can check out the entire segment for more on Cox and Locke discussing their Marvel journeys and careers. Daredevil, Daredevil: Born Again, and Agatha All Along are available on Disney+.

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