Daredevil: Born Again trailer fulfills a longtime Marvel dream

Daredevil is back… this time on Disney Plus. The first trailer for Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again is finally here, and oh, what a journey it’s been for stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio.

Marvel’s collaboration with Netflix may go down as one of the studio’s most troubled moments, caused by the tension between Marvel Studios and Marvel Televisionwhich remained split until 2019. Showing as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cageand Iron Fist have their… defenders… but they were always the black sheep of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, their canon status always a bit unclear. But after Daredevil ended, Marvel fans never gave up hope that Cox would one day return to the MCU. After a smattering of cameos in other Marvel Studios projects, Cox’s Hell’s Kitchen hero finally returns this year in full force with Daredevil: Born Again.

Born again Cox once again stars as New York City attorney Matt Murdock, who dons red armor at night to fight street-level villainy as the vigilante Daredevil. D’Onofrio reprises his role as the Kingpin after a stint at Marvel’s Echopositioned this time as both a ruthless criminal and mayoral candidate. Born again will also see the return of a number of the original show’s cast, including Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Wilson Bethel as Bullseye and Jon Bernthal as the Punisher. (As for an Echo appearance, Alaqua Cox told Polygon she wasn’t involved — but would love to return to the MCU one day.)

“During the time the show wasn’t on, I was convinced it was over,” Cox said last year The Official Marvel Podcast. “We had moved on. But Vincent called me and said, ‘No, no, they’re bringing it back.’ And I would pick up the phone and think, poor guy is delusional, it’s never going to happen. So it’s pretty surreal to be here, almost four years, five years since we finished the last season on the previous iteration.”

“It is similar in some ways X-Men ’97because it’s reviving something that the fans love, but it’s taking it in a new direction,” said Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studios head of TV and streaming, in an earlier episode of the pod. “These characters have matured. The universe is different than it was. Things have changed. Society has changed (…) Matt and Wilson have changed and their characters are going to collide in ways we’ve never seen before. It is no longer enough to try to assassinate each other. There is a whole round of politics at play.”

The series sounds like a dream to Daredevil diehards, but according to the crafters, it started out as a bit of a nightmare for Marvel, with blockbuster ambitions outweighing the reality of producing television. Halfway through production, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige reportedly shut down the seriesreleased the original writers and directors from their contracts and sought a new team to pivot the series away from the original tone, which was described as Marvel’s take on the legal process. Whatever was filmed, “it didn’t work.” Finally, Marvel employed author Dario Scardapane (Jack Ryan, The Punisher) as new showrunner, with Loki and Moon Knight instructors who finish the remaining sections.

Marvel has set Daredevil: Born Again to premiere March 4 on Disney Plus.