Why Daredevil: Born Again’s Overhaul Brought Back Karen And Foggy: ‘They’re The Heart Of His World’

When Marvel first announced the return of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, fans of Hell’s Kitchen’s finest were thrilled – especially since Netflix’s no-punches-pulled Daredevil series was unceremoniously left hanging at the end of Season 3. But during production on Daredevil: Born Again, it became clear that the Disney+ revival series wasn’t quite going as planned. During the 2023 writers’ strike, the show underwent an overhaul – bringing in showrunner Dario Scardapane (The Punisher), adding directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and reinstating some key elements of the Daredevil mythos. Most notably, Matt Murdock’s closest friends and law associates, Foggy Nelson and Karen Page – played by Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll, respectively.

As it turns out, reuniting the holy trinity of Nelson, Murdock and Page was key to Scardapane’s pitch when he was brought in to retool Born Again. “That was actually one of the first things I said to the bosses,” he tells Empire. “You can’t do this show without Karen and Foggy. They’re Matt’s family. They’re the heart of his world. You can’t take them out without explaining why, and if that explanation doesn’t ring true, don’t take them out.” Their return was intended to make Born Again even more of a continuation of the Netflix show, rather than a fresh start for Matt. “It was much less the world we knew, and more trying to blaze a new trail,” says Scardapane of what Born Again used to be, “but in doing so, they’d forgotten some things that really were necessary to the engine of the story.”

Bringing back Foggy and Karen was so important that Scardapane wouldn’t have done the show without them – after all, the Netflix series ended with the trio in a bar, choosing to evolve the Nelson & Murdock firm into Nelson, Murdock & Page. “I was willing to lose a job over this one,” Scardapane laughs. “Because Season 3 of the Netflix show ended with a dream, with the names on that napkin. If you don’t pay that off, you’re not giving your characters context. You can’t ignore that dream.” For Daredevil fans, Born Again is a dream that’s a long time coming.

Read Empire’s full Daredevil: Born Again feature – speaking to Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, showrunner Dario Scardapane, directs Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and more – in the Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning issue, on sale Thursday 13 February. Pre-order a copy online here. Daredevil: Born Again comes to Disney+ from 5 March.