When Daredevil: Born Again debuted last year, many fans weren’t particularly happy with the way the show dropped Matt Murdock’s best friends at the start of the season. Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson was killed off, and Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page moved to San Francisco for the majority of the season. Nelson, Murdock & Page was no more!
Meanwhile, behind the scenes Born Again Season 1 underwent an upheaval during production, with the original creative team let go by Marvel and new showrunner Dario Scardapane brought in to fix the show, which Marvel execs reportedly felt “wasn’t working.”
Review: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episodes 2 & 3
And while bringing Foggy back from the dead wasn’t in the cards (yet?), Scardapane says that he always knew Karen, after returning at the end of Season 1, would be back full time for Season 2.
“There wasn’t even a decision,” the showrunner recently told me. “It was kind of built into Season 1. When I came in and talked to these guys, and we outlined what we wanted to do, big picture, Karen was a big part of that. And then as we ended Season 1, she returned to Daredevil’s life. She’s there for a reason, now that Kingpin has taken over New York. And she’s an integral part of the resistance. God, that was built in. That’s been around for a long time.”
Executive producer Sana Amanat agrees, and points out that the character has evolved much over the years. In addition to her time on Daredevil – both the Netflix and now Disney+ versions – she was also an integral part of the Jon Bernthal Punisher series as well.
‘She may be all those sweet little things that [Cox] said, but she’s also a killer.’ -Vincent D’Onofrio
“You’ve seen her in so many different forms,” says Amanat. “And we were excited about continuing to take her further. So her relationship with Matt was important, how they’re affected by Foggy’s loss. It’s so rich with story that we knew she was going to be in there.”
Charlie Cox, who of course stars as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, points out that Karen and Matt’s storyline has felt “incomplete” for years because of the will they/won’t they aspect of it.
“We’ve teased their love for one another, their relationship, for so many seasons,” he says. “And for one reason or another, it’s never quite managed to work out for them. And in this season, their respite from the world is in each other, and we get to see them being pretty sweet together and quite romantic, and kind of in love.
“That’s the stakes for them,” he adds. “That’s what they’re risking. That’s what they’ll lose if all this falls apart.”
The original Netflix Daredevil show debuted all the way back in 2015, and Karen Page certainly has come far in the 11 years since then. We’ve already seen that she’s battle-ready these days, and certainly hanging out with guys like Daredevil and the Punisher has pointed her in that direction. But the influence of Frank Castle on her worldview may be starting to spill into her relationship with Matt this season as well.
“Yeah, well, in every great relationship there’s disagreements,” Cox laughs when asked about Karen and Matt’s different philosophies about how to handle the current crisis in the MCU’s New York City. The mayor of that city, or at least the guy who plays him, Vincent D’Onofrio, is more blunt.
“Well, I mean, she’s a killer,” he says. “She may be all those sweet little things that [Cox] said, but she’s also a killer.”
D’Onofrio would know, as Karen did in fact kill his character Wilson Fisk’s assistant, James Wesley, back on the Netflix show. That incident traumatized Karen, but has she learned to accept that sometimes killing is the way to go? (There’s also the matter involving her brother, but that’s a whole other story…)
Says Cox: “She’s more badass in this season than we’ve ever seen her.”
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is streaming on Disney+ now.
Talk to Scott Collura at @scottcollura.bsky.social, or listen to his Star Trek podcast, Transporter Room 3. Or do both!
