‘She-Hulk’: Charlie Cox Talks the Return of Matt Murdock and Daredevil

Charlie Cox never thought he would suit up as Daredevil again — but thanks to one phone call in 2020, he’s put on Matt Murdock’s suit twice now (and Daredevil’s suit once) and he’s only just getting started.

Cox finally gets to flex those dormant Daredevil muscles in Episode 8 (and Episode 9!) of Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk when he crosses paths with Jennifer Walters, sending them on a Super Hero mission together. Following the release of the finale, Marvel.com hopped on a video chat with Cox to talk through returning to the role and what it means to step back into Matt Murdock’s shoes (however, he just hasn’t watched the last two episodes of the season yet, because he’s waiting to do so with his wife, awwww).

MARVEL.COM: Diving right in, are you aware of how much fans love you and that you are one of the most exciting re-additions to the MCU?

CHARLIE COX: The answer is no, I'm not on social media. So I don't get all the kind of influx of comments and stories and data. But when episode eight of She-Hulk aired, my 16-year-old nephew was staying with me. He was all on his phone, and I was like what are you looking at? He's like showing me reams of comments and gifs and things that people were saying.

The response I guess on Twitter or Instagram, whatever it is, to all of this stuff, to my character, and then the stuff with Tatiana that we all had— I got a little glimpse into that. It was a very frightening place, but most of what I saw was incredibly positive and exciting, and there were some very funny comments. It was nice to see a little bit of the fan reaction for a minute. But thank you, that's kind of you to say.

MARVEL.COM: I know that originally it was very TBD if Matt Murdock, let alone Daredevil, could even appear in She-Hulk, and that was very late in the game decision for the show. Do you remember any of the early conversations you had when it was first discussed that the character—

CHARLIE COX: I I didn't know that until recently! When I read that, I read that in an interview that [head writer] Jessica Gao did, and she had said that. I had no idea.

From my perspective, I got a phone call from Kevin Feige in 2020 saying “Would you consider coming back and playing the character again? If so, we'd like to put you in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and we'd like to put you in She-Hulk.” From my point of view, it was just suddenly, that was what the next year of my life was going to look like which was incredibly exciting and overwhelming, emotionally overwhelming, as you can imagine, having not heard from— not spoken to anyone or heard from anyone about the character for over two years.

I didn't know all that was going on behind the scenes. I didn't realize that there was a moment when they didn't think I was going to be able to be in the show. I'm just grateful that it all worked out.

MARVEL.COM: Do you remember your first reaction to that phone call from Kevin? I mean, a phone call from Kevin in itself is pretty exciting, let alone one saying Daredevil is coming back.

CHARLIE COX: Yeah, and also don't forget because the show that we had made before wasn't Marvel Studios, so I had only met Kevin once, and we hadn't even spoken about anything Marvel. We'd just shaken hands, he came to see a play that I was in with Tom Hiddleston. We'd spoken briefly at that point, but I had no relationship with him.

It was in the middle of the pandemic. Everyone was in lockdown. My wife and I had been out for a walk with our children, and when I came back, I had a voicemail saying— it was from Kevin's assistant saying, “This is Kevin Feige's assistant. Would you please call us back?” So my wife freaked out, and I immediately called the number and was put through to Kevin. We had a brief conversation about how crazy the world is right now and everything like that.

I thought maybe he was going to ask me if I would consider doing some big charity event, a video or something to raise money and funds for people suffering during the pandemic. I did not expect to be asked to reprise the role. I have a great mental image in my head of my wife sitting on the steps desperate to know what was happening on the phone.

MARVEL.COM: Your time in Episode 8  is almost evenly split between Matt Murdock, lawyer, and Matt Murdock, Daredevil. Who were you most excited to step back into the shoes of? Was it Daredevil, or was it Lawyer Matt, or are they just one and the same right now?

CHARLIE COX: I was really excited about the new suit. I was really excited to put that on and to give it its first outing. and like they say, if you buy a new car, stretch its legs a bit to see how it fits and moved and all those kinds of things. I was really excited just to wear it, just to sit around wearing it. But in terms of the character, I think of them as the same person, just the same person who's in two different frames of mind.

It's really more about the scenes. It was really fun to do the scene at the bar as Matt Murdock with Tatiana just because of the nature of that scene and how quick-witted and funny it is and flirty it is. I was really excited about that. In general, we haven't got to see enough of Matt doing.

But then also he had this really funny back-and-forth banter kind of frustrating conversations with She-Hulk on rooftops and stuff, and that was something we'd never done. The closest we'd had to that was maybe the rooftop scene with Punisher [in Daredevil Season 2]. But that was anger and frustration, and I'm tied up, and so this was a whole different side to Matt that I was excited to explore and experiment with.

MARVEL.COM: How does it feel to play this new Matt who doesn't have the weight of the world crushing down on him anymore? He's very confident. He's very charming in She-Hulk.

CHARLIE COX: I talked a little bit to Marvel Studios about where does he come from? Where's his headspace at? What's going on? I don't think we really knew what was going to happen next. When we were shooting it, I certainly didn't know about a new Daredevil show, I think [Marvel Studios] was figuring out what's the next right thing for this character.

So the way that I like to think of it was that no matter what's going on in his world in Hell's Kitchen, when he comes out to do this little job, which is defending, representing Luke Jacobson in this trial, he kind of sees it almost as like a little bit of a holiday. So his frame of mind is that he's just out of sight, out of mind from all the stuff that —  whatever is going on in New York right now, he's away from that for a few days while he takes care of his case.

While he's there he feels a weight lifted, and he's able just to put that to one side mentally and just enjoy himself. Then there's this kind of fun little romance going on, and then he gets roped into all this stuff with Leap-Frog as we see the episode kind of develop. I kind of saw it as a different side to Matt but maybe not because he's different from who he has been in the past or will be in the future, but mainly because it's kind of Matt Murdock on holiday a little bit.

MARVEL.COM: I love the moment in Episode 8 where it like almost sets up a hallway fight scene, and I as a viewer of Daredevil, was like, oh, my gosh are we going to get another?

CHARLIE COX: It's so cool. I read that. It was so clever. It's so clever, and it's good because it's cool because at least you've got some of it. It starts, so you get to feel like, oh, cool, we've got a hallway stunt fight scene. But then there's that excellent kind of drop-the-mic moment where She-Hulk comes into the room. That was so clever. Jessica Gao is amazing. I absolutely loved working with her. I thought her scripts were sensational, and it was a real pleasure.

MARVEL.COM: Are some of these fight scenes muscle memory for you now at this point?

CHARLIE COX: Yes and no. Yes insofar as I've done enough of them now that I can do quite a lot of the stuff. At the same time, I did feel quite rusty. Knowing that we're gearing up for Daredevil: Born Again how, I have started kind of doing some MMA training again. That's something that I would like to be more familiar with when we get into this other show so that when we do see him in combat, we are able to at times recognize rather than just someone who's like a bit of a brawler, someone that has had training in various disciplines and is able to employ certain techniques depending on who he's fighting.

MARVEL.COM: You’ve joined the MCU. Daredevil is back. Everyone is over the moon about this. Is there anything you want to say to the fans who have literally been begging for this to happen for the last few years?

CHARLIE COX: There's so much I want to say. Whatever happens to my career going forward from this point on, I owe most of it to the “Save Daredevil” campaign. That even when I had lost hope years ago, they did not, and they continued to campaign and support. And over the years, I've met many of them, and they're such an enthusiastic, passionate crowd.

Daredevil is such an amazing character. It's been the great honor of my career to be offered that part and to be able to play him. I've had such fun with it. It's changed my life irrevocably. And when the show came to an end, despite the disappointment of the journey ending, I felt like we'd done a good job, and we had an amazing time and we could only be grateful for what we'd had.

To be invited back and starting again, almost, it feels like a little bit like a dream. It feels too good to be true. I'm so excited about the future. I can't wait to get on the set from the first day of the new show. I'm already starting to train. As you know, I'm already starting to make plans in terms of living and training and having conversations with the writers and all of those things. So it's starting to feel very real.

I actually got an email from a friend of mine this morning saying that he had been asked to audition for a part. He didn't know what part it was, obviously, but it’s starting to feel very real. I feel very grateful that I was given the opportunity to play this part. I feel very lucky to have been given such an incredible part to play. There's a lot of people to thank.

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