You can thank “The Punisher” actor Jon Bernthal for ‘saving’ “Daredevil: Born Again,” at least according to the show’s star Charlie Cox.
The series was famously several months into production when the strikes shut it down. In that downtime, Marvel Studios realised that the series wasn’t working and brought in new showrunner Dario Scardapane to right the ship.
The result was that the episodes already shot were reworked with a new premiere and finale filmed, and other episodes recut to incorporate new elements into them – the bank heist bottle episode being the only one left as it was.
Next season will see no such mish-mash of different creative team styles, with Scardapane and crew setting out to make the show they want to make from the first episode.
But what prompted the Marvel executives to realise the show wasn’t working? Cox tells Screen Rant that the person who deserves much of the credit for the show’s creative overhaul was Bernthal and his scene in the fourth episode as The Punisher:
“What I heard was when they were then looking at the show and editing it and putting it together, that scene made it by one day. They showed that scene to some of the high-ups at Disney and Marvel, and they were like, ‘This is great. This is the show we want to make.’
And that was part of the narrative behind shifting direction and continuing what we had done previously, which is, you know, tell a kind of very dark, sinister version of Daredevil. Jon [Bernthal] wrote most of that scene as well, so we are very grateful to him for potentially leading us back on track.”
The comments come as actor Wilson Bethel, who plays Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter/Bullseye in the series, teased at a recent convention (via CBM) that the best fight sequence his character is involved in will appear in the second season.
He also commented on the show’s recent third season renewal and confirms his involvement: “As some of you might know, we’ve already got picked up for another new season that we will start doing [filming] next year. We’ll have more Bullseye on the way and Kingpin and all the rest.”
“Daredevil: Born Again” will return with its second season on March 4th 2026.
