Charlie Cox confirms most of Daredevil: Born Again’s action scenes are made with practical stunts. The MCU’s Daredevil: Born Again takes up where Daredevil season 3’s ending left off, only a few years after the events of the Netflix series finale. Everything shown in Daredevil: Born Again ties neatly with Netflix’s three seasons of Daredevil, but there are a few differences that enhance Matt Murdock’s MCU story. For example, Daredevil: Born Again’s action is a little more intense, and it uses more visual effects than Netflix’s Daredevil did.
But while Daredevil: Born Again uses more CGI than Netflix’s Daredevil, it still relies on practical stunts the majority of the time. In an interview with GQ, Charlie Cox reveals that “90% of [Daredevil: Born Again’s] action sequences are practical.” Cox recalls practicing every move in episode 1’s stairwell fight with Bullseye, where everything was practical except the villain’s knives. When Daredevil appears before Bullseye on the rooftop, Cox says “there’s a little peppering of super-humanness” created with VFX that enhanced the scene. Read Charlie Cox’s full comments below:
Charlie Cox: “That sequence with Bullseye was one of the most complicated, especially that bit in the stairwell was one of the most complicated because I’m having to react to knives that aren’t real. Normally, you throw a punch, they react, they punch you, you can see the punch. You can see the kick. You know where it lands. You’re able to react to it. I was having to learn the choreography of my attacking moves, and the knives I was taking, whatever it was. It was like punch, punch, knife, knife. Punch, miss, knife. It was just so many extra beats.”
“The thing that we’ve done with this new show, which is, 90% of our sequences are practical, so I’m learning them, stunt double’s learning them, and we are shooting them in camera. Most of the computer-generated images are the removal of a wire, maybe. But, there is this 5% that, in order to pay homage to what the character can do in the comics, we need a little bit of help.”
“It’s just finding the right moments, and so in this sequence here, Bullseye comes up the stairs, he exits onto the roof, and then in the background I just suddenly appear. And the speed at which I’m there, and the pose that it struck, there’s a little peppering of super-humanness, superhero-ness. You know, if you love these characters, it does get your juices running a little bit, it’s exciting.”
Vincent D’Onofrio: “That’s what you get when you work for the MCU.”
It Took Ten Years For Charlie Cox’s Daredevil To Become A Full-Fledged Superhero
Matt Murdock is a notably realistic street-level hero. However, Daredevil does have superhuman abilities in Marvel Comics and the MCU. Daredevil possesses superhuman agility, flexibility, and reflexes — all on the same level as Spider-Man’s. Charlie Cox’s Daredevil never displayed any clear feats of superhuman agility in Netflix’s Daredevil, and he’s only starting to show this quality in the MCU. Netflix’s Daredevil had a smaller budget than the MCU, but it also aimed at a more grounded tone than Daredevil: Born Again.
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Daredevil’s first superhuman feat took place in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, where he jumped across the fracturing ground and down a parking lot building while chasing down Frog-Man and escaping She-Hulk. Matt Murdock performed some striking acrobatics in Daredevil: Born Again episode 1; and in episode 4, he pulled off a few unprecedented moves with his billy clubs. In future episodes, in Daredevil: Born Again season 2, and in a possible MCU movie appearance, Charlie Cox’s Daredevil will likely perform more superhuman moves that require CGI.
Now Is The Best Time For Charlie Cox’s Daredevil To Flaunt His Superhuman Abilities
With Bullseye back, Wilson Fisk in power, and the mysterious masked villain Muse killing people in secret in Daredevil: Born Again, Matt Murdock needs to put on the Daredevil cowl as soon as possible. Matt’s anger over Foggy Nelson’s death will also make him more brutal than ever. As a result, Daredevil may have more action-packed fight scenes and perform more eye-catching moves, hopefully on the same level of physical prowess and visual spectacle as Spider-Man.
Source: GQ
Daredevil: Born Again
9/10
- Release Date
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March 4, 2025
- Showrunner
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Chris Ord
- Directors
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Michael Cuesta, Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Jeffrey Nachmanoff
- Writers
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Chris Ord