Speak With the Devil: A Q&A with Daredevil's Charlie Cox
We speak with Daredevil star Charlie Cox and the show's new showrunner, Erik Oleson about the forthcoming Season 3.
With the launch of Season 3 of Marvel's Daredevil tomorrow on Netflix, we got an opportunity to sit down and chat with the show’s star, Charlie Cox, and it’s new showrunner, Erik Oleson.
Disclosure Notice: Netflix paid for our flights and accommodation to Milan, Italy, where the interview took place. The format was a round-table interview and featured three other reporters from different publications who also asked questions. This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
Erik, with your call up to season 3, what is it that you wanted to achieve with these characters?
Erik: I very much want to hit the tone of the show as something between season 1 and the Sopranos. What I mean by that is, that I wanted to go much deeper into the individual characters and tell an ensemble story that more fully fleshed out everybody. In my experience the best TV shows treat every character as if they are the main character in their own TV show. That just makes the hero of the show that much better. I wanted this twisty, turny, grounded crime story and that's what people will see with this season. There have been lots of amazing runs on the comic, Frank Miller, [Brian Michael] Bendis, Kevin Smith, and I view this season as my take on the character.
Does Matt still hold out hope that Elektra is alive and can be found? Will Matt look for her or try to find out what happened to her?
Erik: I need to answer carefully. Elektra is missing; no body was found. We’ll have to see what the future holds, but as far as Matt is concerned this season, he presumes she is dead.
Charlie: The other thing is, Elektra died in season 2, and what happened in The Defenders with her; that wasn’t Elektra, you know what I mean. So was that even really Electra? I think the events of Midlands Circle, that building crashing down on Matt brought him back to reality. Was that ever really her. Her body was like a vessel.
And that realisation is kind of where we find Matt at the start of Season 3?
Erik: Matt is kind of damaged by the fact that he was this close to reuniting with Elektra and then the events of the Defenders pulls the rug out from under him. So where we begin Season 3 is with Matt being broken in three ways, physically, emotionally and spiritually. And that anger at what happened with Elektra gets him to ask: “What am I doing with my life?”, and ”Why the hell is God so cruel?”
This season takes Matt to some very dark places. Charlie, do you enjoy it more to play him that way, in those dark spaces?
Charlie: I like having all of it. I like the moments when we get to play him in a very dark fashion, but I like that because we’ve also got to see him happy and when things are working. I wouldn’t want to do one and not the other.
I think Matt is capable of the depths of great despair and can spend a lot of time brooding. He’s also got this inherent, habitual drive for goodness and for love. That’s what ultimately makes him a superhero. And that’s what ultimately makes him different from Wilson Fisk. In other ways they are identical.
Will Season 3 address Karen Page’s murder of the Kingpin’s right-hand man, Wesley?
Erik: Karen is haunted by the fact that she held back from Matt that she took Wesley’s life in a moment of anger. And with the fact that Wilson Fist is getting released, that’s one of the main reasons that she’s scared.
Foggy and Matt are such good friends - or were good friends - but their approach to conflict resolution is so different. Do you find the contrast between Matt and Foggy to be enjoyable as an actor?
Charlie: Yes. Foggy is in many ways considered the beating heart of all the Marvel characters. His moral compass is probably even more on point than Matt Murdock’s. What I think Elden [Henson] does wonderfully with that character, is something that I think is very difficult to do - and very few actors can do - which is he has an earnestness and an unconditional love for Matt, but he’s also really very funny. Often you’ll have a caricature of a guy who, everything he says is really funny, but it doesn’t feel like a real person.
The thing that has always intrigued me about Matt and Foggy as a friendship, is that they don’t have any other friends. - Charlie Cox
It is important to find a relationship there, where these two people love and support each other and care for each other. There’s enough evidence there for why they’ve been friends for so long. But there’s also enough disagreement in terms of approach that allows for drama.
The thing that has always intrigued me about Matt and Foggy as a friendship, is that they don’t have any other friends. When that happens in life, when there are two people who are very, very close - there are periods in my life where I’ve had that - you kind of take each other hostage. There’s something very lovely about that, but there’s also something revealing. When you take someone hostage as your best friend, it’s so you can control what they know about you and you get to hide your other sides. For Daredevil there’s an obvious reason for that, but what is it for Foggy. That’s an area that would be fun to play with.
Charlie, you’ve been playing this character for five years now. Have you started to feel like Matt is a part you? Does it make you feel like a superhero?
Erik: Well he did stop that mugging last night at the restaurant [laughs].
Charlie: It doesn’t feel like that long. The funny thing about playing a character that has existed for 50 plus years is that I don’t feel any ownership. I feel like I’ve been very graciously lent it for a few seasons of television. I do have my version, taken from the comics and the scripts, so I’m finding out who this character is each season and what makes him tick comes a little easier now. But I dont think I’m in any danger of starting to think I’m a superhero [laughs].
With the back and forth between Matt’s costumes, will we ever see the yellow Daredevil costume make an appearance? Yes or no answer, please?
Erik: See you can’t ask me a yes or no question like that. I mean I can’t say if it will never appear ever. Or do you mean just in Season 3?
Yes. Just this season.
Erik: Oh. Then, no.
To tie the Netflix series to the larger MCU, which of the Defenders survived The Snap?
Charlie: No idea. But this season is pre-Snap.
Erik: Yeah, this is pre-Snap so we don’t know.
Will we see a post-credit scene at the end of Season 3, showing Chris Evans' Captain America coming to New York to recruit The Defenders to fight Thanos in Avengers 4.
Charlie: Yes.
Yes?
Both: [Laughter] No!
Marvel’s Daredevil Season 3 starts streaming on Netflix on October 19th. You can read our Season 3 Premiere review here and the rest of the individual episode reviews will follow soon after.
