According to Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox, the Disney+ series nearly borrowed the lighter tone of the Ben Affleck film.
Speaking with Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, Cox said he is a “massive fan” of Ben Affleck and his 2003 film. At the same time, he acknowledged that the CGI technology of the era was not ready to fully bring the iconic Marvel hero to the screen. Cox also suggested the film was too ambitious in trying to fit the entirety of Matt Murdock’s story into a single movie.
Ben Affleck in Daredevil (2003) – Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers, YouTube
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In contrast, the Netflix series earned praise for its grounded realism and deliberate pacing. Many fans were disappointed when it was canceled in 2018, and Cox said he doubted he would ever play the character again. He was surprised when Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige approached him about reviving the series.
A Major Creative Pivot
The move to Disney+ proved challenging. The original showrunners had reportedly completed nearly half of the first season before production halted during the 2023 writers’ strike. Kevin Feige and other Marvel executives reportedly felt the show was not working. They ultimately fired the original creative team before they had selected replacements.
The result was what Horowitz called a “major creative pivot.” He noted that in an earlier interview, Vincent D’Onofrio claimed he told Cox they needed to approach Kevin Feige and push for changes.
The Original Model
“It’s an odd one to talk about, and I don’t know what was going on behind the scenes,” Cox said. He noted that as streaming became more popular, there was a growing sense in the industry that broadly appealing episodic procedurals were dying out. However, Cox said he still believes audiences find those shows entertaining.
Jon Bernthal as the Punisher and Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in Daredevil: Born Again – Disney, Marvel Studios
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According to Charlie Cox, Feige and Disney initially wanted to follow that model with Daredevil: Born Again. He suggested they were thinking, “What character do we have we can do that with? Well, we have a lawyer who’s also already popular, right?”
Cox said that first the idea made sense. “Once we got into production, it very quickly became apparent that the lessons we’d learnt from the [Ben Affleck] movie that we had got right in the show, we were now almost unlearning a little bit,” he said. “The character really does work best in a serialized platform,” he added, “but also when it’s darker and grittier and there’s less tongue-in-cheek levity.”
(L-R): Charlie Cox as Daredevil/Matt Murdock and Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer “Jen” Walters in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2022 MARVEL.
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In conclusion, Cox praised Marvel for having the courage to make such a financially costly change in direction. “We’re indebted to them, and they really did listen to Vincent and I,” he said.
The Future of Daredevil: Born Again
Despite losing roughly half of its first-season audience during its second outing, a third season of Daredevil: Born Again is already in production.
Taken as a whole, Cox’s comments suggest Disney originally envisioned a Daredevil series with the broader appeal of the Ben Affleck film and the episodic structure of a network procedural. Whether his and D’Onofrio’s push for a “darker and grittier” version closer to the Netflix series was the right move may become a point of debate among fans.
For now, the creative course appears to be set.
Would you have preferred a more lighthearted Daredevil: Born Again? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
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