Daredevil: Born Again star Charlie Cox has teased the new Marvel series starts off with a “traumatic event” that is sure to change his character’s life forever.
Cox, 42, reprises his role as the blind lawyer Matt Murdock/masked vigilante Daredevil in the forthcoming Disney+ revival of the original Daredevil series, which ran on Netflix from 2015 to 2018.
The new iteration will see Murdoch “fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course,” according to an official synopsis.
Speaking to ExtraTV ahead of its March 4 premiere, Cox revealed: “At the beginning of this season, there's a very traumatic event, which is going to change Matt Murdock's life… He'll probably never be the same again.”
While the British actor admitted he’s “not convinced it’s the right thing to do,” he acknowledged: “But we have to come back big and bold... we’ve got to make a statement after all these years away, and what it does do is it's a wonderful catalyst for the rest of the story.”
Addressing the pilot episode’s “brutal” scene in a separate press junket interview with the YouTube channel Pay Or Wait, Born Again directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson shared that it’s “gonna upset a lot of people.”
“It upset us too,” Moorehead said. “When we signed on for the job, the decision had already been made.”
Benson explained that the devastating opening was meant to bring back the spirit of humanity that was embedded in the original series.
“If this is a show about grief and how that ripples out, first let’s present in a way that’s honoring the gravity of the act,” Moorhead added. But also on a storytelling level, “let’s make sure that this ripples out throughout the entire season. Let’s change the characters on a fundamental level and have that be the reason why so many things happen. And we realized that it actually starts being honest with the spirit of the original show – that violent actions have real violent consequences.”
The cryptic messaging has left fans worried that the first episode will see the death of a major character – either Murdoch’s best friend Foggy Nelson or his love interest Karen.
“Killing off Foggy. I predicted this months ago,” one person confidently tweeted, with a second agreeing: “Alright, now it’s definitely Foggy or Karen.”
“Pretty sure they're going to kill Foggy. Karen is in the trailers and the next season, so it seems most likely. It sucks, I really didn't want them to kill off any of Matt's friends,” another added.
Daredevil: Born Again will premiere with a two-episode special on March 4 on Disney+ at 6 p.m.
