“I was absolutely blown away”: Charlie Cox opens up about his return to Daredevil: Born Again

Despite concluding its first season almost two months ago, Daredevil: Born Again continues to be a part of cultural conversation in one way or another among fans. The show was in the spotlight again because of Variety's Actors on Actors podcast on June 11, 2025. The episode was special because it featured not one but two Disney+ MCU actors, Charlie Cox and Joe Locke.

For the uninitiated, Locke had made an impression in Agatha All Along for his role as the mysterious teenager, who ended up being the magically-powered superhero Wiccan. In the comics and the MCU, Wiccan is the alter-ego of Billy Maximoff, one of Wanda's twins. The Daredevil: Born Again actor complimented Locke's performance and even appreciated the twist in the fifth episode of Agatha All Along.

This is where Locke returned the compliment and revealed that he loved the original Netflix show headlined by Cox that preceded Daredevil: Born Again. Locke revealed that despite being 12 years old and being prohibited from watching the Netflix series because of its brutality, he managed to watch it and enjoy its seriousness. Locke, especially, pointed to the brutal fight scenes, and said:

"It’s some of the best fight scenes on TV! What was it like coming back to do it this time?"

To this, Cox responded:

"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."

When Locke asked Charlie Cox whether the latter ever expected to return like he ended up doing with Daredevil: Born Again, he answered:

"I was absolutely shocked. It was the middle of COVID. I was in the garden, and my phone rang. I hadn’t heard from anyone from Marvel for two years at least. The last phone call I’d had was, 'We’re sorry, but the show’s been canceled.' And then Kevin Feige calls. He wasn’t involved with the original show, because it was Marvel Television, which was a different studio at the time. I’d met Kevin — had a two-minute conversation with him when he came to see a play I was in — but we didn’t talk about 'Daredevil.'"

He continued:

"I didn't know there was an embargo on how two years had to pass before they could contact me about it. So he was like, 'Do you want to come back and do some more Daredevil stuff?' I was absolutely blown away. Couldn’t believe it. And then I didn’t hear anything for three months, so I started to question whether I’d dreamed that."

Charlie Cox also addressed how the original Netflix Marvel Universe was separate from the overall MCU before Daredevil: Born Again

Daredevil streamed on Netflix for three seasons between 2015 and 2018. Charlie Cox's Daredevil also appeared in a crossover series with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand titled The Defenders in 2017. However, Netflix pulled the plug on Daredevil in November 2018, after the makers were ideating the fourth season.

This move had a lot of fans dismayed because Daredevil was one of the few superhero shows that was acclaimed by both fans and critics. A lot of people also believed that some sort of rights issue was the reason behind the series' cancellation. When Disney got the rights back from Netflix, all the shows were added to Disney+ in March 2022, and then Daredevil: Born Again was officially announced in July of the same year.

However, even when the original Netflix shows were being streamed, fans noticed that they had little to no references to the overall MCU, because they fell under the Marvel Television banner, which was separate from the movies. Charlie Cox and Joe Locke addressed this initial division, where the former revealed that he and his fellow Netflix Marvel actors used to joke about feeling like stepchildren.

When Locke asked Charlie Cox if he feels being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Daredevil: Born Again, the latter replied:

"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."

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As Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is filming in New York City, the entire first season and the three seasons of the original series are available to stream on Disney+.

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