Arriving on Disney+ on March 11 with the first episode of its second season (with the remaining seven arriving weekly) is ‘Daredevil: Born Again’, which brings back lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) has he battles the powerful Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), who is ruling New York as mayor with an iron fist.
The first season of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ was a largely successful attempt to fully incorporate Daredevil and his nemesis Wilson Fisk into the MCU with their own storyline. Though it suffered from some very apparent seams as the behind-the-scenes team attempted to rescue an unsuccessful first effort with new material, it still provided some superior entertainment.
The second season doesn’t have the same collision of creative vision, but it does have its own challenges.
Dario Scardapane takes full control of the season this year, and is clearly happy to be unleashed. The action is brutal in places, the dialogue often crackles and the storyline is much smoother.
Still, there are issues: at times the momentum lags, and not every plotline outside of the main clash between our central hero and villain works.
Directorially, with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead leading the team, the show still looks great, with moody scenes, excellent fights and some inventive connective tissue (such as a series of videos mocking Fisk).
Cox and D’Onofrio know exactly what they’re doing at this point, and if the script doesn’t always keep up with them, they make the most of their material.
Outside of them, the likes of Deborah Ann Woll, Genneya Walton and particularly new guest star Matthew Lillard are all strong, Lillard in particular excellent as the mysterious Mr. Charles, who is by turns funny and threatening.
The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen may not have worked out all of his issues, but the second run of ‘Born Again’ certainly offers enough to please fans of the character. And with Season 3 already shooting, we know more will be on the way.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 receives 72 out of 100.
What’s the plot of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2?
Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil.
But, beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ will return for a third season.
Charlie Cox stars as Matt Murdock/Daredevil.
Vincent D’Onofrio is also expected to be back as the Kingpin.
Despite a troubled development process, which included scrapping footage and hiring a new showrunner, the Marvel/Disney+ series ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ arrived to praise and solid viewing figures this past March.
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The show, which saw the return of Charlie Cox as superpowered blind lawyer Matt Murdock (who also battles crime as costumed vigilante Daredevil) and Vincent D’Onofrio as powerful crime figure Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk effectively continued the story from the Netflix‘Daredevil’ series, albeit this time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Despite comments from Cox in July (see more on that below), Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming, television and animation at Marvel Studios, confirmed the third season renewal in an interview with IGN.
‘Born Again’ follows Fisk who goes from being a gangster to a NYC autocrat mayor. Matt falls in love with therapist Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), but she winds up becoming an ally in the Fisk administration.
Season 2 will see the return of Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones character. Also in the Season 1 finale, Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/Punisher returned and, in the very end, broke out of Fisk’s Red Hook jail.
In addition to the next two batches of Daredevil, the Punisher character will appear in his own one-off special co-written by and starring Bernthal and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. It’s been shot but has yet to confirm a premiere date.
What did Cox and D’Onofrio say about the chances of a third season?
While a second season had already been ordered (and shot for a 2026 launch), Cox in a statement at GalaxyCon seemed to indicate that it would serve as the final season.
Yet that was reportedly taken out of context and for his part, D’Onofrio took to social media to say:
“Good chance there will be a third [season].”
When will ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 3 be on screens?
While Season 2 is due next year, Season 3 won’t shoot until around the same time, so we can expect it to launch in early 2027.
Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones in ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’. Photo: Netflix.
Preview:
Krysten Ritter will appear in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2.
She’s bringing Jessica Jones back to screens.
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio star in the show.
Looks like the Defenders are getting back together. Well, some of them at least.
As part of its presentation at the big Disney Upfront this week (where the company touted its upcoming and returning shows in the hopes of luring advertising dollars), Marvel brought Krysten Ritter on stage to announce that she will appear as Jessica Jones in the second season of Disney+ series ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
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This is what Ritter said about returning to the role:
“It’s so great to be back, returning to Jessica after three seasons and ‘The Defenders’ and now joining the MCU. I’m so excited to bring back this iconic character, and without giving too much away, there is much more in store for Jessica Jones. This is going to be an incredible season!”
Ritter’s gritty, funny portrayal of the character was widely acclaimed, and she was a definite standout among the Netflix/Marvel heroes.
There had been talk that other Netflix characters might be making the leap, following Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil and his arch nemesis The Kingpin, AKA Wilson Fisk, as played by Vincent D’Onofrio.
Hopes remain high that Mike Colter, who played Luke Cage, a hulking hero with great strength and impenetrable skin, might also show up. And that’s it for the Defenders line up. There definitely was not anybody else we’d want to see.
Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones in ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’. Photo: Netflix.
One of the key characters during the Netflix/Marvel TV run, with her standalone series launching in 2015 and lasting for three seasons. She also appeared in the ‘Defenders’ team-up miniseries in 2017.
Jessica was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos and first appeared in ‘Alias #1’ (November 2001) as part of Marvel’s Max, an imprint for more mature content.
She gains super strength and the ability to fly (to some degree, it’s more like giant leaps) and relative invulnerability but the accident also kills her family (or so she thinks).
In the show, much as in the comic, she’s an extremely troubled young woman, an alcoholic who funds her life through working as a private investigator.
In Season 1, she must deal with Kilgrave (David Tennant), a cunning and sadistic mind manipulator who forced her to kill someone while under his power and effectively ended her brief heroic career.
A continuation of the ‘Daredevil’ series that aired on Netflix from 2015 to 2018, ‘Born Again’ picks up with our hero Matt Murdock (Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities, amid a continued fight for justice through his bustling law firm.
At the same time, former mob boss Wilson Fisk (D’Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.
Season 2 will pick up after the cliffhanger of the first, in which crime lord Fisk violently consolidated power, leading Matt to go underground and begin reaching out to allies to resist Fisk and his anti-vigilante task force. Jones will be part of that group of allies.
“People were watching it as a season four, not at as a first season. It’s given us the confidence of making the show annually into the future.”
Just don’t got expecting this to open any floodgate for other characters, according to the executive:
“It’s about not rushing and telling the best story. Yes, it’s exciting to think about characters interacting, but it’s about the reasons why. At times we’ve done that very well, at times we’ve rushed. The story has to lead the path.”
The show follows Riri’s further adventures as she works on her technological creations (including her version of the Iron Man suit) and encounters some dangerous villains.
‘Ironheart’ launches on Disney+ on June 24th, and you can see the trailer below.
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Then there is ‘Wonder Man,’ about a superpowered actor and stunt man (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who auditions to be in a superhero movie.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.
Landing on Disney+ on March 4th with the first two episodes (before going weekly), ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ finds Disney and Marvel seeking to segue Charlie Cox’s titular vigilante from his slightly cheerier Marvel Cinematic Universe entrance to the darker tones of his days on Netflix.
The big questions the show needs to answer are, can that style of show truly still co-exist within the MCU without sticking out like a sore thumb and what impact did the behind-the-scenes creative overhaul have on the new series?
Related Article: Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio Talk Disney+’s ‘Daredevil: Born Again’
Does ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ do the character justice?
If the new show was looking to emulate the style, feel and success of at least the first season of the Marvel/Netflix ‘Daredevil’ (which you can find on Disney+ these days), then the answer to all three parts is, “mostly.”
With Marvel at least having established the likes of ‘Echo’ as being able to co-exist with other characters while maintaining a much darker feel, there is precedent for ‘Born Again’ to unleash itself. This is no pat, Disney-fied take on Daredevil (a couple of younger characters aside, who in some ways feel forced upon the creative team to up the youth appeal), but instead a show that wears its heart on its sleeve and isn’t afraid to keep the body count high.
Yet if the appearance of Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson and Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page had you thinking this will directly replicate the original series, be warned: that’s not the case. And if you’ve been itching to see Cox truly back in the suit and the level of fight scenes that the Netflix show established, that’s also something you may have to be patient about. Don’t get us wrong; there is some intense action to be found in the episodes. They’re just primarily, because of the direction the story takes, focused on Matt Murdock rather than his costumed alter ego.
Dario Scardapane, who has experience running Netflix’s ‘The Punisher’ series which spun off Jon Bernthal’s tough-nut character was brought in to take over the show after executives got a look during the production shutdown for the actors’ strike at what had been written and shot by original showrunners Matt Corman and Chris Ord, and decided that it wasn’t working. Scardapane’s version, which retains some legal elements of the series but adds in more of a serialized feel certainly has value and weight, chronicling Matt Murdock’s decision to essentially hang up his horns following a tragedy.
While the new show does follow Murdock the lawyer more than his heroic side, there is plenty of action and drama to be found within, and a fair sprinkling of other Marvel comics characters (including a nod to other MCU shows that are fun easter eggs rather than requiring any homework to make the story work).
A scene early on between Cox’s Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk recalls the diner conversation from ‘Heat’ and there is much mileage to be gotten out of Fisk’s running to be mayor of New York, with plenty of Trumpian parallels.
It doesn’t all completely work –– a lot of Season One here ends up feeling like setup for Season Two, and there are passages that feel less essential than others. But it’s definitely good to have Daredevil back on our screens.
One of the smartest moves for the new show was hiring directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead to take over the visual look during the overhaul. While they may be better known for their weird indie movies and the stylish quirk they brought to MCU Disney+ entries ‘Moon Knight’ and ‘Loki’s second season, here they are operating more in a street-crime mode, yet with a stylish flair that sometimes brings to mind Christopher Nolan’s work on the Batman movies.
Charlie Cox knows how to play Matt Murdock/Daredevil by this point, and the script certainly gives him enough to chew on –– there are several callbacks to the character’s faith and the struggles with it, and a solid arc for him to play.
Yet D’Onofrio might have come off even better; Fisk was always one of the most compelling elements of the original series (and missed in subsequent seasons), and here he’s back to being presented as a more human threat, albeit still a morality-free monster when called upon. The actor’s exchanges with Fisk’s great love, his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer, similarly returning from the Netflix era), now estranged, are great.
Likewise, both are surrounded by solid supporting casts –– Cox has the likes of Margarita Levieva as therapist Heather Glenn, with whom he strikes up a relationship that gives him extra layers, while Nikki M. James makes an impact as fellow legal eagle Kirsten McDuffie.
Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle in Marvel’s ‘The Punisher.’ Photo: Netflix.
Jon Bernthal is also back, and while Frank Castle only gets a couple of scenes (so far; expect more from him next year), the performer is typically great, Kudos also to Michael Gandolfini, who registers well as Daniel Blade an ambitious young man who joins Kingpin’s staff.
If there’s someone who gets shortchanged, it’s Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, who rarely gets to do much as Karen besides worry about Matt. Still, all signs point to more from her also next season.
This is a confident, often impressive return for a character, and certainly hews closer to his Netflix days than even the version we’ve seen in the likes of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home.’
Still, there are some signs that the need to overhaul the show has left some scars behind, and hopefully those will be more healed by the in-the-works season two.
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What is the plot of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’?
Blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) fights for justice while former crime boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) pursues his campaign as the mayor of New York City, causing their past identities to collide.
Matthew Lillard on Prime Video’s ‘Bosch’ season 2. Credit: Aaron Epstein. Copyright: Amazon Studios.
Preview:
Matthew Lillard is joining ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
His unknown character will first appear in Season 2.
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio star in the show.
The first season of the latest Disney/Marvel offering for Disney+, ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ is only just about to launch on the streaming service, yet plans are already in place for Season Two.
In actual fact, a two-season order has been the idea for some time now (more on that below).
And according to Deadline, we now know at least one person who will join the cast when the second season kicks off shooting this week, as Matthew Lillard is aboard the show.
Quite what he’ll be doing in the ‘Daredevil’ universe is a mystery for now –– in keeping with usual behavior, neither Marvel nor Disney would be drawn on who he is playing.
Current speculation is leaning towards some comic book villains, though as ever with the MCU series, there’s a world of possibilities, and chances are even if he plays someone who has popped up in the Marvel pages, the screen version could be quite different.
A continuation of the ‘Daredevil’ series that aired on Netflix from 2015 to 2018, ‘Born Again’ picks up with our hero Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities, amid a continued fight for justice through his bustling law firm.
At the same time, former mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.
Woll, Henson, Zurer and Bernthal, are, of course, veterans of the original series, with Woll and Henson playing Matt’s colleagues Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, Zurer as Fisk’s wife Vanessa and Bernthal as Frank Castle, AKA the violent veteran vigilante known as The Punisher.
After seeding the previously Netflix-based characters of Murdock and Fisk into the MCU via the likes of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘She-Hulk’, Marvel was riding high on the reaction to news that the two would be the focus of their own Disney+ series.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ was supposed to be Marvel triumphantly proving it can take a character that has been brought to TV screens elsewhere and merge them into the wider, more directly canonical comic book-based universe.
Commissioned from writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman, it was set for a mammoth 18-episode shoot and cameras started rolling back in March of 2023.
Yet less than half the episodes had been filmed when the writers’ strike closed down production, and when executives got a look at the footage, they were unimpressed. Ord, Corman and the directors were let go and a new creative team, including Netflix ‘Punisher’ Dario Scardapane as showrunner and ‘Loki’ Season 2 directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, was hired.
We’re finally about to see the fruits of their labors…
Where else can we see Matthew Lillard?
Matthew Lillard in 1996’s ‘Scream’. Photo: Dimension Films.
Even with a healthy and prolific career, Lillard is probably best known for playing two main roles –– that of Stu in ‘Scream’ and Shaggy in various versions of ‘Scooby Doo,’ but most notably the live-action movies.
He’s returning to both roles in the future; he and Scott Foley were announced at the end of January as joining ‘Scream 7’ (though Lillard’s exact capacity is unknown, since Stu has been dead for years at this point, but that hasn’t been a hurdle for other characters). That movie is set for February 27th next year.
Lillard will be heard as Shaggy in a new Scooby TV series which has yet to confirm a date. Also on the small screen, he’s appearing in the second season of Prime Video’s ‘Cross,’ the adaptation of the James Patterson novels.
Besides any of those, he’s reprising the role of William Afton in ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’, the sequel to 2023’s successful Blumhouse adaptation of the video game franchise. It’ll be out on December 5th.
When will ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ be on our screens?
Season One of the show –– AKA the first nine episodes –– kicks off with its first two installments on Disney+ on March 4th.
Season Two, which as mentioned is only now setting its cameras in motion, and consists of the second batch of nine episodes, will likely debut a year from now if Disney keeps to any sort of annual schedule.
Marvel Studios’ ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
Movies and TV Shows Featuring Characters in ‘Daredevil: Born Again:’
‘Daredevil: Begin Again’ was supposed to be Marvel triumphantly proving it can take a character that has been brought to TV screens elsewhere (Cox played the character for three seasons and the ‘Defenders’ team-up limited series on Netflix, produced by a different Marvel small-screen team).
Commissioned from writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman, it was set for a mammoth 18-episode shoot and cameras started rolling back in March. Less than half the episodes had been filmed when the writers’ strike closed down production, but that was far from the only issue.
In the Reporter’s story, there is mention that the executives screened the available footage and didn’t like where the show was headed, including the fact that Cox allegedly didn’t show up in costume as Daredevil until episode four.
Which, we must admit, is surprising, because you have to assume the team signed off on the scripts, and the character’s actions would have been apparent on the page.
Now, a big overhaul is planned, with Ord and Corman out and the directors hired for the season also let go. The search is on for new writers and directors to bring the show more closely in alignment with Marvel’s thinking once Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio (reprising his role as classic Daredevil villain the Kingpin from the Netflix version, having also appeared in the MCU’s ‘Hawkeye’ series) and the other cast can return to work with the resolution of the actors’ strike.
Much of the acquired footage will be repurposed and new storylines added.
This is far from the first of the MCU-linked series to see problems behind the scenes. The Reporter’s story also mentions that ‘Moon Knight’ head writer Jeremy Slater quit the show, with main director Mohamed Diab taking on more of the creative workload.
On ‘She-Hulk’, show creator and writer Jessica Gao was largely sidelined once director Kat Coiro came on to oversee a production that suffered with Covid issues. But unlike Slater, Gao was brought back in during post-production to finish the series.
And perhaps the most chaotic example –– which can truly be seen on screen –– is ‘Secret Invasion’, which suffered a revolving door of creative teams even through pre-production, with the back-and-forth even threatening to foil the series completely as schedule changes meant cast could have been unavailable.
The result? One of the worst-reviewed and least-watched Marvel TV series to land on Disney+.
It’s clear Marvel is struggling to adapt its successful movie method to TV despite aiming to change how shows are produced.
From the sounds of it, the plan now is to switch back to a more traditional process, including working up pilots and show bibles instead of cranking out whole first seasons of series at big expense.
Premiering on Netflix beginning August 31st is the new live-action adaption of the popular manga series ‘One Piece.’ It is based on the highly popular anime and manga, created by Eiichiro Oda. Director Marc Jobst (‘Daredevil’, ‘The Witcher’) helmed the first two episodes and also served as Executive Producer on the series.
What Is The Plot Of ‘One Piece’?
Monkey D. Luffy longs for a life of freedom for as long as he can remember. He is in search of the legendary treasure known as the One Piece and sets out to find a crew to help him on his ultimate quest – to become King of the Pirates. Along the way, Luffy and his crew must outrun the relentless Marines and formidable rivals.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Marc Jobst about the live-action adaptation of the popular anime, what drew him to the project, his love of character-driven stories, and his work on Netflix’s Marvel projects.
‘One Piece’ director Marc Jobst. Photo courtesy of Netflix.
You can read the full interview below or watch our interview by clicking on the video player above.
Moviefone: When you were first brought onto the project, did you feel the need to immediately dive into watching the anime because there’s such extensive lore attached to ‘One Piece’?
Marc Jobst: I really wanted to read and get to the source of this extraordinary story, partly because I absolutely loved Matt (Owens) and Steve (Maeda)’s scripts. I just felt like they were so characterful, and they were so epic, and full of adventure, action-packed, and crazy, and wild, and people chopping up into bits, and all this wonderful crazy stuff. But partly also because what they did in those scripts, and this is what I started with because they sent me the scripts first off, what I loved so much about them, with all those big landscapes and world-building of it all, I loved the fact that there were still these really beautiful little intimate moments between characters, and that’s what drew me into this. I’ve done quite a lot of world-building shows, and they don’t always have from the big to the intimate. Those intimate scenes were also insightful, I felt, about human nature and kindness, actually. So that’s what made me really want to go to the manga and start to read. There is a point at which as a director, you don’t want to become too overburdened. Because I knew Matt Owens, and I’d worked with Matt Owens before, and I knew that he knew everything there was to know, he was a pillar that I could lean on in order to really make sure that I wasn’t veering from the lore in anything that I was proposing to do. I found this when I was doing the Marvel Studios work, sometimes as a director, you just need to see what you see on the page and come to it with a freshness. After all, we were trying to create a show that was fresh, that was additional to the manga and the anime, not in place of.
MF: Aside from being the executive producer, you directed the first two episodes. Can you talk about the process of crafting those initial episodes?
MJ: Yeah, and I’m a character and story man. When I’m sent a script, I’m only really interested in what happens. Who are the characters, what’s their story, what do they want, and what’s their journey? Do I feel like their journey involves some relatable story that as an audience, you can connect with? So when I read those first scripts, that was my first thing, never mind about the crazy world, and the phenomenal characters that exist within it, that’s all lovely. But really if it doesn’t feel to me like we are really exploring character, it’s maybe not my bag of chips. This absolutely did, and that’s what drew me in. So when you ask how do you approach that with the actors, Oda has written phenomenal backstories to these characters. They’re really deep, they’re really profound, they’re really troubled in some respects, first of all. Second of all, they have clear wants. Luffy wants to be king of the pirates, Zoro wants to be the best swordsman in the world, Nami wants to be able to draw a map of the entire universe. All those wants are really clear. So you have a character with a backstory that they bring to life and that they want to achieve something. So what’s the obstacle, and how do they overcome that obstacle, and how do they bring friendships and relationships that enable them to overcome those obstacles? So when I started working with these actors, first of all, the casting process was significant because, obviously, we wanted to travel the world to find the right actors for this. We absolutely knew we wanted the right people, and we wouldn’t stop until we got them. So having done that, and having found these extraordinary people who have heart, primarily they have heart, and they have a beautiful big generous spirit. Number one is what we wanted to cast. Number two, I needed actors who could be physical, who could do a lot of the stunt work themselves, who were excited by doing that, because of the way that I like to shoot action and the way that I wanted the ‘One Piece’ action to look and to feel different from other show’s action. So having done that, then we had four, five weeks of rehearsal together in Cape Town. Bear in mind, these are young actors, so they haven’t all spent a lifetime in front of the camera, or a lifetime acting even. So we went through all the stages that you do when you work with actors, and I’ve spent a life in theater and film. So all that experience I could bring to the floor. We played silly games, and we ate, and we laughed a lot, and we humiliated ourselves in front of each other. We went and did a bit of community work to give something back to the communities in South Africa, and that was a bonding experience for us as a family. So that by the time we got onto the set, we trusted each other. My job then is to create a space in all the technology that goes around a film set, that when they walked onto the floor, that space is for them and for them only, and everybody else serves the actor. That’s just the way that I work as a director. Everything serves the actor because, look, you can have the best sets and visual effects, and sound effects, and special effects, and whizz, bangs, and whistles in the world, but if you don’t believe the person that’s in front of you, you don’t fall in love with a set, you fall in love with a person. So that’s where I wanted to work.
MF: You worked on several IPs that have a lot of action. For ‘One Piece,’ these are characters with special abilities, but they’re not quite typical like your normal comic book characters. Can you talk about crafting the fight scenes and the action scenes, and using these special abilities because they’re quite different?
MJ: Action can get really tedious, and action can get really tiring to watch. Actually, ultimately, it can really affect your enjoyment of a story if it’s not done well and if it’s not done with a purpose. I learned that on ‘Daredevil’, shooting ‘Daredevil’. I was having dinner with some friends in New York when we were prepping the shoot, and this lady said to me, “Oh, I love Daredevil. He’s fantastic. I just fast forward all the action sequences.” You think, “Oh my God, if you’re just fast-forwarding the action sequence, which we spend days preparing, and rehearsing, and talking about, we’re not doing something right.” So to me, action is sometimes a bit like a song in a musical. If you can just take it out and the story still works, it’s not quite working. So action has to, in some form or other, affect character or influence story, number one. So that’s something that I took into ‘The Witcher’ as well. The big sword fight there, I really was very keen that I wanted that first section to be a single shot sword fight to tell the story that this is a badass guy who knows how to wield a sword. By the way, Henry Cavill knows how to wield a sword. That would allow me then, in the second part, to cut the fight up so that I could really control the main event, which was Geralt and Renfri. Then I could stop it and I could get the eye-to-eye contact, and I could get that sense of are they going to kiss or are they going to kill? So if you take that then into ‘One Piece’, what is the tone of the action in ‘One Piece?’ Well, first of all, it’s much more playful, and it’s important to get that playfulness right. Partly you’ve got this guy with rubber arms, and so if you take it too seriously, suddenly you’re going to get this moment of crazy visual effects, which is going to come out of nowhere, and you’re going to think, “Well, that doesn’t quite fit.” So you have to find a tone that fits that. Then second of all, fundamentally, Marvel and ‘Witcher’ were all about the hits, it was all about the punch. So you would make sure that you got this hit and this punch, and so that you could see what was happening, and the sweat coming off the forehead, and the blood coming out of the mouth, and it’s visceral. In ‘One Piece’, to me, it was all about the journey to get to the hit. It was all about the choreography, it was all about the dance. It’s much more ‘Crouching Tiger’ and ‘Kung Fu Hustle’, than it is those gritty, hard Marvel shows, if you see what I mean. So that set the tone for the fight sequences. Then of course, because of the way that I wanted to honor some of the framing of the manga, we developed these special lenses that were made for the show. They’re super wide, but they’re also extremely close focus. So it means that we could do these long sweeping camera shots that didn’t rely constantly on cutting, which is the bit that gets you tired. Added to that, in order to achieve those long sweeping shots, you can’t do that on the day, that’s got to be rehearsed with camera. So the studio, and Netflix, and I, and Steve, and Matt discussed that it would be far better to have a single camera operator purely dedicated, 100% of the time to rehearse with a stunt team. So they’re in the Dojo the whole time, and they learn the choreography of the fight with the camera, and they can also influence the choreography. So they can say, “Look, if you just hold that moment up a beat, I can get my camera around here so we don’t have to do a cut to land the hit.” That was very important to what I hope people enjoy about the action in ‘One Piece’.
MF: Can you talk more about the special lenses you developed for the series and why you like using wide shots for fight sequences?
MJ: The thing about these lenses, the thing about the close focus and the wide is that, this is a travel show. There is no precinct, they don’t end up always coming back to one place. They do come back to the Going Merry, but the Merry’s really only there to take them somewhere else. So location, world-building, have got to be in the DNA of everything that we do. Then you can choose if you want to go really close for those intimate scenes to do that. But all the rest of it felt like to me, we wanted to have location with us all the time because that’s part of what the DNA of the show is. So to have had these lenses that enabled us to work on eight-millimeter, 14-millimeter, 21-millimeter lenses, not only would give the show a completely unique look but was also true to what the manga is.
Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia in Netflix’s ‘The Witcher.’ Photo: Jay Maidment.
MF: You’ve worked on so many TV shows. We just mentioned ‘Daredevil’ and ‘The Witcher,’ as well as ‘The Punisher,’ ‘Luke Cage,’ and ‘Hannibal.’ All of these are huge IPs with big fan bases. So what is your approach to projects like that, and is there something that draws you to this genre?
MJ: No, not really. I love story, and I love character, and it goes back to what we said earlier on. If I get a script and I’m drawn in to the arc of the character, if I am fascinated by the world and what it explores, then I’m in. I don’t ever consider myself a genre director. In fact, I’m mostly known for very intense human dramas, particularly in the UK and Europe. Things like ‘Tin Star,’ and ‘Hannibal,’ and ‘Criminal Justice,’ which was then made into ‘The Night Of.’ Those dramas are the things that I started my career in. Then I think it’s just because I approach action shows and genre shows with all those simple questions that you start off when you are learning your craft as a director, which is what’s the story? What do they want? Where do they come from, and who are they? Once you’ve got those elements together, you’re off. Whether it’s a genre show, a superhero show, a fantasy show, or a very intense human kitchen sink drama show, it’s the same thing. What do these people want? It’s one of the things that I work with most on set, what’s the story? What are we really trying to tell you? I know what the journey is, but what’s it about? What is it really about? What’s ‘One Piece’ really about? It’s about believing in your dreams, it’s about believing in yourself, it’s about friendship, being loyal to your friends, and it’s about standing up for what you believe. Great values. We know that. So that becomes the true North with which we set up this whole show. My job as a director is to hold the tiller of our boat, and make sure that we go off in that direction and set sail and reach our end destination. That’s my job. There are plenty of winds that blow around to try and knock the ship off course, all the time, because this is a huge production. But that’s my job. To remind people all the time, and then to say to the actors, “What do you want? What do you want from this scene? What do you want from the story, ultimately? What do you want in your life?” Those are the things that begin to help you to create characters which are three-dimensional, that come from a two-dimensional world.
MF: As you know, Marvel is bringing ‘Daredevil’ back to Disney+ with ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ which will feature both Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprising their roles from the Netflix series. What piece of advice would you give to the creators of the new show?
MJ: I feel like if you create too straight a line, it doesn’t feel authentic and real. That’s the great trick of ‘Daredevil’, and that’s the great trick of adapting the Marvel Comics into live action, is don’t take a straight line because human beings aren’t a straight line. If we’re trying to dimensionalize characters as in ‘One Piece’, as in ‘Daredevil’, and as in all these adaptations from 2D into 3D, if you try to take a straight line, it becomes fake. One of the great skills that I think ‘Daredevil’ had, actually, they all had in their own ways, but let’s talk about ‘Daredevil’ because that’s the one that is soonest off the starting blocks, is you have Charlie Cox embodying a real human being in that. Charlie Cox is interested in doing that. Of course, we set it into a superhero world, but if you are going to humanize, if you’re going to dimensionalize, you have to follow that through. It’s a bit like in ‘One Piece’, when a few people have talked to me about, “Oh, it feels much more explicit and bloody than the manga.” I say, “Well, if you’re going to dimensionalize your character, and you’re going to go into proper fights, if you don’t have any of that, you’re not staying true to your intention. That will come across.” So with those superhero shows and with shows like ‘Daredevil’, it’s making sure that you are truthful to the human experience, which is not ever a straight line.
MF: Finally, with ‘One Piece’ having already premiered on Netflix, is there another story from anime or manga that has piqued your interest and that you would like to eventually tell?
MJ: Well, to be honest, it’s been so pretty full on with getting ‘One Piece’ to the starting line, I haven’t really had very much headspace to be open to others. Because mangas and animes are worlds, and you dive into it. I don’t devour manga, I don’t devour anime. I devour story, and I devour character. So I’m just hoping, let’s just see how this goes, let’s just see whether we can make it to the starting line of another series, which would be so incredible. I hope if that happens, I could be involved again. But none of us are holding our breath because you just don’t know in this business. We’ve done the best that we can. We’ve put our heart and soul into it. Everybody, the entire huge 800,000 people on this job have worked so hard on it. Of course, in the end, the proof is in the viewing.
‘One Piece’ director Marc Jobst. Photo courtesy of Netflix.
Director’s Statement: Marc would like to state that he supports both SAG and WGA in their pursuit of reaching a fair and equitable resolution to the respective strikes. In talking about his work – past and present – he does so with unequivocal support for the highly skilled crews that make up the different unions (SAG and WGA included) and believes all should be valued and recompensed for the contributions they make in bringing these series and films to life.
Jennifer Garner attends ‘The Adam Project’ World Premiere at Alice Tully Hall on February 28, 2022 in New York City. Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Netflix.
The multiverse may not reap as many dividends at the box office these days (unless it’s surrounding Spider-Man, apparently), but that isn’t stopping the third ‘Deadpool’ movie from going full meta with the concept.
‘Deadpool 3’, which features the return of Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with a Mouth, Wade Wilson already boasts the character heading into the MCU and meeting up with a version of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
But from the sounds of it, the film –– which has Shawn Levy directing in his latest collaboration with the actor –– will feature a whole host of other Marvel characters.
Jennifer Garner as Elektra Natchios in ‘Elektra.’ Courtesy of Marvel and 20th Century Fox.
Elektra Natchios, introduced into the pages of Marvel comics by writer Frank Miller in ‘Daredevil #168’ in 1980, has been a constant presence in Daredevil’s life, and frequently a love interest. The daughter of a wealthy Greek entrepreneur, she’s trained from a young age as an assassin and boasts a wide range of abilities, including lethal skills with Sai knives.
In the movies, Garner played her opposite Ben Affleck’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the 2003 movie ‘Daredevil,’ but despite that not launching its own franchise, she would return as the character in ‘Elektra’ in 2005, which suffered a similar fate at the box office.
How Elektra will show up in ‘Deadpool 3’ remains to be seen, but we’d put money on it being a cameo and one that likely came about thanks to Garner’s work with Levy and Reynolds on Netflix film ‘The Adam Project’. It’ll certainly be fun to see her back in action.
Who is back from the other ‘Deadpool’ movies?
(L to R) Shioli Kutsuna as Yukio and Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead in ‘Deadpool 2.’ Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox.
(L to R) Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman discuss Marvel Studios’ ‘Deadpool 3.’ Photo courtesy of Ryan Reynolds YouTube channel.
Besides the confirmed characters, there are also those who are rumored to be back in action. The internet has been abuzz that Affleck will return as Daredevil, while Chris Evans has also been rumored to be returning to Marvel as a character he’s played in the past. No, not Captain America (even if Evans is most famous as him these days), but Johnny Storm/Human Torch from ‘Fantastic Four.’
The latter is more intriguing (if true) given Marvel’s aim to launch a new version of ‘Fantastic Four’ within the MCU. Clearly Kevin Feige is giving Reynolds and Levy plenty of leeway.
‘Deadpool 3’ is currently scheduled to quip his way into theaters on May 3rd, 2024.
Hugh Jackman will return as Wolverine in Marvel Studios’ ‘Deadpool 3.’
This week’s episode is about to take the prize for least known comic book character to show up on screen, welcome to ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’ Episode 8, ‘Ribbit and Rip It.’
The episode opens on two guys attempting to steal a TV, with a hero named Leap-Frog, AKA Eugene Patilio (Brandon Stanley) trying to stop them. It’s revealed that he is telling the whole story to Jen (Tatiana Maslany), including that his suit is supposed to be fireproof, but bursts into flames.
He wants “justice and compensation” for the suit messing up, and it’s revealed the creator of the suit is Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews), who made Jen’s outfits and her super-suit in episode 5. She explains it’s a conflict of interest, and her boss (Steve Coulter) tells her to make a compromise with him to avoid going to court.
Jen goes to Jacobson and explains that she is there about Leap Frog. The tailor is obviously not happy, and she tries to get him to agree to take some responsibility for the mess up, but he ends up blocking her in the process. “See you in court,” Jen tells him.
In court, Jacobson shows up with no lawyer. The judge asks where he is, and wouldn’t you know it, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) walks in, asking the judge to drop the lawsuit. Jen asks to speak to other clients Jacobson has worked with, but Matt points out superheroes have secret identities and who is she to find those out? So, they call Eugene to the stand.
Leap-Frog reveals that he went against Jacobson’s instructions, and the judge drops the case. Jen attempts to befriend the tailor again, but of course that fails. Cut to Jen at the bar, with Matt Murdock arriving to buy her a drink.
Jen asks why he’s in Los Angeles, and Murdock explains Jacobson made him suits in the past. They go back and forth, and this is the first time we see Jen connecting with someone who is actually interested in both her and She-Hulk. Murdock then mentions how Jen can help people who fail, and She-Hulk can help people that the world fails.
She then turns to the camera, asking “We all feel this here, don’t we?” As Murdock goes to take a call, Jen gets a weird text from the techie with the “She-Hulk fetish.” Murdock goes to leave but says that it was great to meet her.
Jen goes to meet with Todd (Jon Bass), and he explains how he just bought a real spear from Wakanda. Todd claims the country of Wakanda is trying to get the spear back, but then tries to make a move on Jen. She leaves immediately.
As she gets home, Jen gets a call from Eugene. He’s being attacked and needs her help. She agrees and goes to grab the super suit Luke made for her. Jen stops Leap-Frog’s car, and Daredevil flies off the back. He tells her she needs to back off, and the two get into an awesome fight.
Jen puts a stop to him, and removes his helmet, revealing that it’s Matt. She accuses him of not being blind, but he confirms that he is indeed blind, however his other senses are enhanced. They get into a bit of an argument, and Matt reveals that Leap Frog kidnapped Jacobson. While agreeing to help, Jen points out that it’s an easy mistake to think the man dressed as a devil would be the bad guy. “That’s a fair point,” Matt replies.
The two make it to Leap-Frog’s lair, and they strategize outside. It’s obvious the two of them have very different ideas on how to break-in, with Matt pointing out that Jen has never done this before. Daredevil does his job, breaking-in and taking out the men in the hallway.
As he’s surrounded, though, Jen does her Hulk-thing and drops a fantastic “She-Hulk smash” as she crushes the men surrounding him. Once inside, Jen takes the legal route with Eugene while Matt just kicks butt around him, also giving legal advice. Jen then turns to the camera and says, “This guy is really kind of doing it for me.”
They rescue Jacobson, who forgives Jen and agrees to make her dress for the gala. She meets Matt on the rooftop, and he explains why he won’t give a statement to the cops. They thank each other for the help, while flirting a little. Jen asks when he’s going home. He says he’s leaving tomorrow and asks Jen out to dinner next time he’s in town. But Jen has other ideas and we cut to them in her apartment making out.
Matt leaves the next morning, and Jen asks why the audience is still here? She thinks the episode should be over… but Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) shows up to get Jen ready for the gala. Jen questions the episode being the last before the finale but shrugs it off and attends as She-Hulk, looking gorgeous!
She meets with her parents (Mark Linn-Baker and Tess Malis Kincaid), who are excited to see her. Though, she spots Todd and instantly wants to walk away. At the ceremony, Jen believes at first that she is the winner, but then realizes that all the women nominated actually won. But as she is giving her speech, the HulkKing takes over and broadcasts her private footage. She gives in to her anger and destroys the room. She is stopped outside by gunpoint, ending the episode.
When ‘She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’ was announced and it was revealed that Charlie Cox would guest star as Daredevil, it was believed he would just be a straight up cameo. But it’s obvious from this one episode that it was far from just a cameo, and rather was an important character for Jen to meet on her journey to becoming a hero.
Having a character such as Jen Walters, one so tied to the “normal versus superhero” life, and a character like Matt Murdock who went through the same thing just makes so much sense. In his own Netflix show, he fought between the normal and the superhero/vigilante life, and his life of fighting crime seemingly took over.
But with Jen, we have the complete opposite. She is trying so hard to make her life as normal as possible, avoiding any of the crazy super-powered nonsense that has seemingly come with her new She-Hulk life. We see this with how Matt interacts with her, teaching her about secret identities, and balancing her own life. He also explains how both Jen and She-Hulk can help people in different ways, not just one or the other.
With both a great guest star and a surprise ending, the next episode is going to be the last and hopefully a great conclusion to an already fantastic series.
(L to R) Charlie Cox as Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin on Netflix/Marvel’s ‘Daredevil.’
The link between the defunct Netflix Marvel TV series and the current MCU is growing even closer. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, who have both returned as their ‘Daredevil’ characters in Marvel Studios productions, are now reuniting for ‘Echo’, the spin-off from ‘Hawkeye’ that stars Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, according to The Weekly Planet podcast.
Cox played Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer who boasts echo-location abilities and dons a costume to fight crime as the vigilante known as Daredevil in three seasons of the show named for the character, plus crossover miniseries ‘The Defenders’. D’Onofrio, meanwhile, was hulking villain Wilson Fisk, AKA The Kingpin, Daredevil’s arch enemy, in the first and third seasons of the show. ‘Daredevil’, along with other Netflix shows, was added to Disney+ this year.
D’Onofrio showed up as one of the antagonists in ‘Hawkeye’, and clashed with Lopez, so it makes sense for him to be back in ‘Echo’, especially as their confrontation ended in a cliffhanger.
‘Echo’ will explore more of Maya Lopez’s life as her time in New York as a gang leader catches up to her. She returns to her hometown and looks to reconnect with her Native American roots. But of course, it won’t be as easy as that.
Marion Dayre is head writer on the show, while Sydney Freeland and Catriona McKenzie are directing the series, which is filming now and expected to arrive on Disney+ next year.
Marvel has naturally yet to officially comment on the return of Cox and D’Onofrio, but according to The Weekly Planet, part of Murdock’s story on ‘Echo’ will have him seeking out “a former ally” which is speculated to be fellow Marvel/Netflix veteran Jessica Jones, played by Krysten Ritter.
The super-powered private detective appeared in three seasons of her own show, along with ‘The Defenders’, and was one of the most popular characters from the Netflix run. If she does indeed return, the only characters left to bring over (or turn into MCU versions) would be Luke Cage and The Punisher.
Oh, and Iron Fist. But does anyone really want to see him back? We’d happily see Coleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) from that show return, though.
Regardless, it’s exciting to speculate on whether the entire Netflix superhero team could one day reunite on Disney+.
