Daredevil: Born Again is easily one of the most anticipated upcoming Marvel TV shows, but the road to its release has been notoriously rocky.
First announced in 2022, the show was then hit with delays thanks to the Hollywood strikes. Whilst production was paused, Marvel Studios made the monumental decision to completely overhaul the show, despite six episodes already being filmed, saying that upon reflection it just wasn't working.
The creative team were completely let go with showrunner Dario Scardapane and director duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead stepping in for a second attempt.
Naturally it was a time of unease for those involved, including star Vincent D'Onofrio, who reprises his role of Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin. Speaking at a recent press conference which GamesRadar+ attended, D'Onofrio revealed what convinced him that the series was finally on the right tracks – and the perhaps surprising role fellow actor Ethan Hawke played in this.
Starring together in the likes of Sinister and Staten Island, the two have long been close friends. And so, when Hawke was filming Marvel series Moon Knight (where he played the villainous Arthur Harrow), which was also helmed by Benson and Moorhead, he gave his pal D'Onofrio a rundown of his positive experience working with the filmmakers.
Trusting that recommendation, D'Onofrio said that alone convinced him that Daredevil: Born Again would finally work: "When I heard that these guys were coming in, that was it. That's all I needed, Dario [showrunner] and these two guys to make my mind reset and say, 'Oh, we can do this'. A very close friend worked with these guys, who is one of the most intelligent actors that I know and probably will ever meet. It's Ethan Hawke. They worked with him and so I knew about that. I had a blow-by-blow description of the shoot of Moon Knight by Ethan."
Continuing, D'Onofrio also added that he's a big fan of the other Marvel series the pair also worked on, which also happens to be his "favorite Disney Plus show" – Loki season 2. The filmmakers helmed four episodes of that hit season, impressing D'Onofrio with the way that they handled the violence of the series.
As he told the press conference: "They did some stuff in the second season I've never seen on television before, the way that they handled the violence. You don't really see a lot, but you feel it all. It's incredible what they did. I just want to say that out loud, that we knew we had a different job to do. We knew we had to get it done. And the fact that our bosses were clever enough to bring all these people in, it was an amazing thing."
Daredevil: Born Again premieres on Disney Plus on March 4th. Never miss an episode with our Daredevil: Born Again release schedule.
Meanwhile find out what to watch beforehand with our guide to the Marvel shows and movies to watch before Daredevil: Born Again.
