Charlie Cox

In Daredevil: Born Again (2025), Charlie Cox makes Matt Murdock hesitate as though the decision still belongs to him. The genre has already told us to expect a fight, but Cox gives the reluctance enough feeling to make the wait worthwhile. We rate him for that: he takes the character’s doubts seriously without asking us to forget what sort of programme we are watching. The series is worth an evening for him, with reservations about what the writing supplies.

The early casting makes sense: he was often given earnest romantic or everyman leads in fantasy and period pieces. His first lead came in Stardust (2007). Supporting parts in Boardwalk Empire (2010) and The Theory of Everything (2014) followed. The larger turn came with Daredevil (2015–2018), which brought wider recognition and a character he would return to from 2021. He commits to the physical training and fight choreography, but our interest in his Murdock does not stop when the fighting does.

Vincent D’Onofrio is the important partner in Daredevil: Born Again. As Wilson Fisk, he gives the renewed conflict force without needing to make it surprising. Together, they suggest people whom pain has changed without necessarily improving, and their scenes hold our attention when the writing offers little new. We felt for Murdock because Cox makes his hesitation seem like the result of pain, rather than a routine delay before a fight.

There is a limit to what this can do for a series. Daredevil: Born Again has uneven pacing and familiar turns, and its legal work is less gripping than its fights. Cox makes the reluctance convincing; he cannot make every delay interesting, or provide the surprise the plotting lacks. Come for Cox and D’Onofrio, provided familiar superhero crime plotting does not put you off.