Charlie Cox talks putting Daredevil's cowl back on for She-Hulk and upcoming Disney+ series

Sydney Bucksbaum
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Charlie Cox is just as shocked as you are that he's not done playing Matt Murdock a.k.a. Daredevil.

After portraying the Man Without Fear for three seasons of Netflix's Daredevil and one season of the Marvel team-up miniseries The Defenders, Cox thought his time as the masked vigilante was over. But everything changed when he got a fateful phone call from Marvel boss Kevin Feige in 2020 that resurrected Matt Murdock in a big way. Since that call, Cox has reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, multiple episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and is set to appear in the upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, premiering in spring 2024.

"I think I'm still coming to terms with it," Cox tells EW about putting Daredevil's cowl back on four years after the Netflix series ended. "It still feels too good to be true. I really had put this to bed emotionally; I didn't think that this was going to happen. I literally don't have the words to describe it. I feel incredibly grateful. I'm so excited about starting again and reading scripts and putting the costume back on and getting on set and being in New York. I can't wait to start back in and tell more of this amazing character's story."

Below, Cox dives deep on bringing Matt to life once more, but now officially within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

She-Hulk Charlie Cox
She-Hulk Charlie Cox

Marvel Studios

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you find out that you were going to get back into this character for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Spider-Man: No Way Home?

CHARLIE COX: I got a call very out of the blue and unexpected from Kevin Feige in June of 2020. I didn't have a previous relationship with Kevin because when we were doing the show before, that was over at Marvel Television, not Marvel Studios, so although I'd met him on one occasion, I really didn't know him at all. He called me up during the pandemic and said that they'd like to bring my character back and would I be interested in playing him. I didn't take too long to think about that. And he said at the time that they wanted to put me in Spider-Man and in She-Hulk. But that was all they knew for now, that there would probably be something coming up after that, but they didn't know what it was.

I had to wait six months before we even got to shoot Spider-Man, and then we shot She-Hulk shortly after that. It wasn't until the end of last year or the beginning of this year even that I heard from Kevin and a couple of other guys at Marvel that they had another project in the works and that they would be letting me know what that was and when it would take place in the future, and so a couple of months ago I found out about the Daredevil: Born Again show, which is very exciting.

What was your reaction when you learned you weren't done playing this character after so many years?

After the show got canceled, Vincent D'Onofrio, who plays Kingpin, and I would talk occasionally and just catch up as friends, but he never gave up hope. He was always like, "I'm sure they're going to call us. I'm sure we're going to do something. I bet you they're going to do something again." And I would listen to him and be like, "Sure ... " But secretly I'd be thinking he's mad. There's no way. Too much time has passed. It's over. He's delusional. He needs to let go. [Laughs] And lo and behold, I was the wrong one.

When you're playing Matt Murdock in She-Hulk or Spider-Man or even your new upcoming Daredevil series, are you playing him the same as in the Netflix series, or are these all new, different versions?

It should be and it is always the same character. The difference is just like with people, we morph and change and are very different based on what's going on in our lives. The Matt Murdock from the Netflix show, that world and what was going on for Matt meant that most of the time we were living with a man who had a huge amount of pressure and strain and tonally the show was very dark and gritty and heavy. I don't know what the new show will be like, but when I came over to do Spider-Man and She-Hulk, the tone is much more lighthearted and tongue in cheek and fun and witty and full of levity, so the hope was that Matt is able to fit into that world and participate in it without it being a different character, a different person.

I certainly had a really good time exploring that, experimenting with it and seeing if it fit. And also just working with Tatiana [Maslany on She-Hulk] was such a joy. She's an incredible performer. I felt like it was important that Matt Murdock didn't become the overly serious one who's the kind of butt of the joke. I felt it was important that he goes toe-to-toe with her and matches her in terms of his charisma and wit and sense of fun, and it was really fun to do.

What did you think of how Matt and Jen started this new, bicoastal relationship? Do you think we'll get to see it continue in the future in any way?

I have no idea. I hate to speculate, all I know is that it was really fun to do. From what I've heard, the feedback has been very good and positive and people have really enjoyed it. I would be a huge supporter of She-Hulk making an appearance in our show, if that's possible. I don't know if it is, I should be clear about that. But who knows? Maybe it's just a vacation fling or maybe there's more substance to it and we can unpack it further in future iterations.

How did your appearances on She-Hulk and Spider-Man: No Way Home prepare you for your upcoming Disney+ series?

That's actually been really helpful, just to dip in a little bit and have a couple of scenes in Spider-Man and She-Hulk, warm the water for me to then step back in full throttle to an 18-episode series. I'm really grateful for that because if those things hadn't happened and suddenly we're just starting this new show, that would've felt like running before we could walk. Whereas this way we reintroduced the character, we've had a bit of fun, we've seen him interact with different characters that we'd never had the opportunity to do before, and we now get to set our own tone and put him in his own show and explore and develop all of the possibilities of his life back in New York.

What are you most excited to explore with this character moving forward in Daredevil: Born Again?

The thing that I'm most intrigued about and really interested in is to see how and why Marvel have chosen this character to appear in an 18-episode series. There has to be a reason why this character has been chosen. I think probably the fact that he's a lawyer, which in and of itself lends so many story possibilities to us, is probably the main reason. But I'm just fascinated to see what we are able to do in terms of storytelling with that many episodes. It's such a huge task. It's such a huge undertaking, but I think if we get it right, to have that many episodes to tell a number of stories is really a really fun challenge and potentially incredibly gratifying.

The first season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming on Disney+.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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