Credit: Marvel StudiosMarvel’s Daredevil: Born Again series is perhaps one of the most troubled series to come from Marvel Studios, next to the newly renamed Agatha All Along. The original Daredevil series aired on Netflix in 2015 and was one of the most successful Marvel shows at the time. However, the reboot has faced a series of struggles, including two main cast members not being invited to return. One of them, Deborah Ann Woll, recently spoke out about missing her character, Karen Page.
Daredevil ran for three seasons on Netflix and was the first series that would lead to the so-called Defenders series which would include Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. It also saw a Punisher spinoff and many fans wondered over the years whether or not Daredevil would ever be incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Fortunately, years’ worth of speculation and rumors paid off, as Charlie Cox made his MCU debut as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the 2021 film Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Since then, Daredevil has appeared in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and will appear in the upcoming Echo series, and it was confirmed that he would be getting his own MCU/Disney+ series, titled Daredevil: Born Again. Over this past year, several details have come out about the upcoming show, including the fact that two of the Netflix show’s main cast would not be returning to reprise their roles. Elden Henson stars as Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, Matt’s best friend and law partner, while Deborah Ann Woll stars as Karen Page, who joins Matt and Foggy in their effort to take down corruption and crime in Hell’s Kitchen. With an announcement that shocked both fans and the stars, neither actor was asked to return for the Disney+ show.
However, since then, Marvel Studios has completely overhauled its television department, including scrapping everything they had for Daredevil: Born Again, including the writing team and executives. Previously, Born Again was expected to be more of a legal procedural drama rather than a superhero show, with most of the violence and action from the Netflix series missing from Disney’s version. Thanks to the Marvel overhaul though, this idea has been scrapped, with the new look on the show expected to “marry the Marvel culture with the traditional TV culture.”
Excitingly, the overhaul does mean that anything previously confirmed by Disney may not be the cast any longer, including cast and characters that had not been asked to return. Recently, during an interview with Screen Rant, Deborah Ann Woll spoke on her time playing Karen in the Netflix series, sharing her love for the character and desire to explore the role further at some point.
Look, playing Karen Page was one of the great roles of my career so far. I have such enormous love and respect for her, for myself, for the story that we created together. I think any iteration of Karen that comes back, if she comes back, if it’s me, if it’s not me, if it’s in comic books, if it’s in 50 years, whatever it is, I just hope that it continues to honor her. That you’re never just the sidekick…
I’m so proud. I really am. I loved working on that so much, and she’s such a cool, cool person. I miss her.
It’s clear that Woll has a deep admiration and love for Karen and her time with Daredevil, and she seems more than willing to return to the role if asked. With Cox reprising the role of Matt/Daredevil, he’s joined by returning stars Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin and Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, so why exactly Woll and Henson weren’t invited to return is unclear.
With the previous work on Daredevil: Born Again scrapped almost completely, it leaves open the possibility for both Karen and Foggy to return with Woll and Henson reprising their roles. The series is currently expected to be released sometime in 2025, but fans can reportedly expect Matt Murdock to reappear in the MCU in the future Spider-Man 4 project with Tom Holland’s Peter Parker.
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