New Daredevil Show Needs More Lawyering, Says Charlie Cox

Charlie Cox, star of the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again, hopes the new show will feature more of the protagonist’s day job as a lawyer. The original Daredevil series lasted three seasons on Netflix before being canceled in 2018. However, in March 2022, Disney announced the character would return in a new series starring Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, reprising their roles from the Netflix version.

Daredevil: Born Again follows the all-new adventures of Matt Murdock (Cox), a blind lawyer who takes up the mantle of Daredevil, a vigilante who brings criminals to task. It’s unknown how the new series will continue the narrative, whether it will pick up unresolved plot threads from the original series or tell a new story as a textbook-defined reboot. Former star Rosario Dawson has expressed interest in reprising her role in Daredevil: Born Again but has yet to be confirmed by any official source.

Cox told THR he hopes the new MCU show feels different from its Netflix predecessor. Cox wants the new series to focus more on Murdock’s day job as a lawyer, similar to the first season of the Netflix show before it began to tell more Daredevil stories. With the new show’s extended episode count ordered by Disney+, at 18 episodes, he hopes there is more time for character beats while maintaining all the superhero action. Read his quote below:

We know there’s going to be 18 episodes, and that’s kind of mind blowing to me, so there’s even more content than we were doing before, which at the time, felt like a lot. What I hope that does is give us longer to really live in the characters and to spend more time in Matt Murdock’s world as a lawyer and still have all the cool Daredevil superhero stuff, but to really live in his world and ground the show in the day-to-day life of someone who’s a lawyer, I think could be really interesting.

With Murdock set to appear in an upcoming episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, it’s clear there’s still interest in the character, and fans will be thrilled to see him return to his own series. Cox correctly points out that the season’s larger episode count should give the writers more room to dig deeper into the character’s alter ego as a lawyer. Exploring his motivations will lead to a deeper, more nuanced portrayal of the superhero side of the storyline. Sadly, the series doesn’t debut until 2024, so for now, audiences will only catch glimpses of Daredevil if he cameos in other MCU properties.

Due to the over-saturation of superheroes in popular culture, each one needs a unique selling point to stand out among the noise. A more grounded perspective from Murdock’s career as a lawyer would help serve the story while also helping the series stand out among the pack. In the end, a lot could change by the time Daredevil: Born Again hits screens, but an emphasis on character development could be the fresh step the series needs.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter