How do you recreate a long-gone corner of street-level New York? For Daredevil: Born Again, a Marvel renaissance full of broken glass and broken bones, the answer lay across the city.
Hell’s Kitchen, the spiritual home of blind lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock, is a bit too gentrified these days to do justice to the grimy, scary corner of Manhattan prowled by Daredevil, the Punisher, Kingpin and the other OGs from Stan Lee’s comic book.
Instead, the Marvel production followed the example of Netflix’s 2015-2018 Daredevil run and redressed other corners of the city to create its grungy, ’70s-tinged Hell’s Kitchen.
Here’s how they did it – and everything else you need to know about the much-anticipated Disney+ series.
What is Daredevil: Born Again about?
The series follows the yin-and-yang extremes of blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox, reprising the role he took on for three Netflix series). His courtroom struggles for justice are augmented by some very literal, and very bruising, crime fighting in Hell’s Kitchen as superhero Daredevil. For Murdock, balance is never easy to strike and a sense of Catholic guilt eats away at him as he dispatches goons by the truckload.
The new series reunites him with an old nemesis: Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), a man who carries a similar dark passenger in his psychotic, ambitious alter ego Kingpin. This time, Fisk holds political office and is looking to sweep vigilantism off the streets – especially with a serial killer called Muse, a street artist with a nasty habit of using his victim’s blood for murals, on the loose.
It’s about what happens when the system starts to break down
‘These people are inextricably linked,’ says D’Onofrio of Fisk and Murdock’s temporary truce in Empire magazine. ‘That link is violent and toxic and scary and bleeds over into their lives. They define each other. We did a version off that I haven’t seen before.’
‘It’s a story about two larger-than-life figures,’ adds executive producer Sana Amanat. ‘It’s also the story of New York City and what happens when the system starts to break down and good people are taken in by bad ideas.’
Cox calls this new Daredevil ‘more visceral’ – an understatement judging by the trailer – while ‘a romcom with punching’ is showrunner Dario Scardapane’s more tongue-in-cheek description.
Where was Daredevil: Born Again filmed?
Like the Netflix run, and unlike the Ben Affleck Daredevil of 2003, which found its Hell’s Kitchen in LA, Daredevil: Born Again has built its version of Murdock’s gritty Manhattan enclave from a patchwork of New York locations. ‘Out the Kitchen’ was the show’s apt production name.
And ‘grounded’ is the word most often used to describe a show that prides itself on taking you on a street-level tour of a tumultuous, urban corner of the Marvelverse. ‘It was important for us to shoot practical shots on the streets of New York,’ stresses director Jeffrey Nachmanoff. Here’s where they did it.
Silvercup Studios, Queens
A studio that was once home to The Sopranos, this Queens hub played an integral role in Born Again, hosting the sets for Muse’s lair, as well as Wilson Fisk’s home and mayoral office. Those builds were based on the real mayor’s residence: the federal-style Gracie Mansion in Manhattan’s Yorkville neighbourhood – right down to the wallpaper prints. ‘The real Gracie Mansion feels like it’s like somebody’s grandmother’s house,’ says production designer Michael Shaw. it’s hilarious to see this powerful figure (Wilson Fisk) in such a delicate world.’
Yonkers City Hall
The picturesque Westchester County landmark is another municipal buildings used in Born Again. Filming took place outside the building in March 2023, with the location used as a surrogate for several government building. ‘We realised that what happens in the political and social systems in a place like New York City is as interesting as anything that happens in the other-worldly scale of an Avengers movie,’ explains executive producer Brad Winderbaum of those municipal settings.
Harlem
Filming in March 2023, the Daredevil crew took to the streets of Harlem, a key location in everything from Spike Lee joints to Die Hard With a Vengeance, ‘The great thing about shooting in New York City is that it can be as big or as small as you want it to be,’ says exec producer Sana Amanatand. ‘We wanted to make the city its own character.’
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
The so-hip-it-hurts Brooklyn suburb hosted the so-violent-it-hurts show in March 2023. The Netflix Daredevil made heavy use of the area too: local dive bar The Turkey’s Nest was turned into Josie’s Bar, a key Matt, Foggy and Karen hangout, in the three-season run. ‘You capture the energy of New York and that bleeds into the fabric of the series and tone of the story,’ says Shaw of the location work. ‘Shooting in the city gives you the size and scope where you could really believe that a person like Wilson Fisk could become mayor.’
Manhattan Municipal Building
This iconic 40-story edifice, aka the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building, appears in the show. It has Daredevil comic-book history, too: a vast Muse graffiti is daubed on the building in Daredevil #597 (2018). Should we expect that scene to play out again here?
Who stars in the show?
Alongside Cox and D’Onofrio, two other veterans from the Netflix Daredevil run are returning in Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll. The pair play Murdock’s allies and friends Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. ‘You can’t do this show without Karen and Foggy,’ Scardapane tells Empire. ‘They’re Matt’s family.’
Newcomers this include Severance’s Nikki James, who plays Kirsten Mcduffie, a former New York City DA, and Margarita Levieva. The Acolyte star plays therapist Heather Glenn, Matt Murdock’s love interest in Born Again.
Ayelet Zurer (Man of Steel) plays Fisk’s guileful wife Vanessa, who wrestles with her long-missing husband’s sudden return. Jon Bernthal is also back as Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, and the man most likely to punch literally any other character through the nearest wall.
Also appearing, posthumously, is Kamar de los Reyes who plays martial art guru Hector Ayala, aka White Tiger. Tragically, the Puerto Rican actor passed away in December 2023. The second episode is dedicated to his memory.
Where can I watch Daredevil: Born Again?
The first two episodes of the nine-episode run land on Disney+ at 6pm PT/ 9pm March 4 in the US, and at 12am on March 5 in the UK. Additional episodes land weekly at the same time, except on March 25/26 when two episodes will drop. Episode 9 will drop on April 15/16.
Will there be a second season of Daredevil?
Yes, and filming is already underway. According to an interview with Collider, it will have eight episodes.
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