How to Get Cast on ‘Daredevil: Born Again’

Amid the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, “Daredevil: Born Again” underwent a complete creative overhaul, bringing a new showrunner and directors into the fold, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Although part of Season 1 was filmed before this change—some of which will be integrated into the subsequent scenes—this new direction has fans scratching their heads over what the show’s premise will be. However, according to an X account dedicated to “Daredevil” updates, production notes indicate that the series follows Matt “Daredevil” Murdock and Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk as they set aside their rivalry and “darker alter-egos” to help the citizens of New York City. But when “their pasts catch up with them,” anything could happen.

As a post-credits scene of Marvel’s “Echo” indicates—a show in which both Daredevil and Kingpin appear—Wilson Fisk might be considering a run for mayor of NYC, as we see him watching a news segment that claims “a bare-knuckle brawler would do well in this race.” But what might Kingpin do with so much power if he does win? Viewers will have to wait and see.

While casting details for “Daredevil: Born Again” remain largely under wraps, we can confirm Charlie Cox will star as Matt Murdock (Daredevil) along with Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk (Kingpin), Sandrine Holt as Vanessa Fisk, and Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle (the Punisher). 

Additional cast members include Margarita Levieva (who’s reportedly playing Heather Glenn, Murdock’s love interest), Michael Gaston, Daniel Gerroll, Harris Yulin, Nikki M. James, and Michael Gandolfini.

As with most MCU productions, Sarah Finn serves as the casting director on “Daredevil: Born Again.” As the one who cast Chadwick Boseman in “Black Panther” and Tom Holland as Spider-Man, Finn has been instrumental in establishing the appeal and success of every Marvel movie and TV series to date. But it wasn’t always an easy task. “‘Captain America’ was not cool,” Finn told Marie Claire. “Literally, I was calling an agent trying to check on this actor and that actor. And the agent would say, ‘He’s never wearing tights.’” 

Yet, as Finn also noted, “There are kids who are the age now where they’ve grown up on the entire canon of the MCU. When I look at it as, ‘Here’s an individual whose life has been shaped by these movies,’ then I feel emotional about that.”

As Finn told Marie Claire, they do not always have a script ready when actors audition for the MCU. Instead, she says actors are given “dummy” material, which either consists of an adapted scene that provides “the sense of [the project] without the specifics” or a script that echoes the atmosphere of said film. That’s precisely what happened to both Cox and Bernthal.

Cox told Collider’s 2018 Comic Con panel that he had no idea he was auditioning for “Daredevil.” “I got a call about an audition. It was a secret. They didn’t tell us what it was called or what it was. I just had some lines. The story I tell is that I didn’t know the character was blind in my first audition, so I didn’t do that, and then, you know, it’s quite a rigorous process,” Cox explained. “I had to audition; I had a Skype,” he continued. “I was then allowed to read the first two episodes, and then I had to fly to L.A. to have a screen test, and then I had a meeting, and then I had another screen test, and then eventually I got the job. So it was a real process. I was really jumping through a lot of hoops to get it.”

Similarly, Bernthal auditioned using a script that evoked the same vibe as his eventual “Punisher” role—but he had a little help from a future MCU member: Tom Holland. While taping their individual auditions, Holland would read offscreen for Bernthal, and Bernthal would do the same for Holland. “They use mock scenes, but it was a man telling this young boy about shooting a deer—describing the moment of killing a deer, I believe,” Bernthal describes to Variety. “We had to play that the deer was there, and I see him getting ready to kill it. He was off camera, and we were like, ‘Get in here and do it with me.’”

Of course, as Finn told Marie Claire, she knows the right person when she sees them. “[W]hen you find that actor whose sensibilities and perspectives not only merge with the character but breathe life into it, so that you’re seeing things you hadn’t even expected to see or thought of or considered, then you’re watching that character come to life in front of you.”

Although “Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2 has already been confirmed, production hasn’t begun due to the major shakeups from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. As mentioned, the series endured a total overhaul, welcoming a new showrunner and directors after filming had already begun. Season 1 seemingly hasn’t wrapped yet amid this creative overhaul, which could explain the show’s prospective late 2024–early 2025 premiere date. Stay tuned for updates on when to expect Season 2 to get underway.

Currently, there are no open casting calls for “Daredevil: Born Again.” Our roundup of superhero-inspired gigs might satisfy that desire to save the world in the meantime. You might also want to brush up on how to get cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (And bookmarking our main casting page can’t hurt, either.)

Learn through experience: While talent may be critical, D’Onofrio wants up-and-coming actors to know that “acting is not a mystery.” 

“There's nothing I know that other actors don’t know,” he told IGN. “The only thing that separates us is experience. Acting can’t creep up on you from behind without you knowing. It can’t. It’s not a ghost, it can’t suddenly embody you without your control. It’s not that romantic, I’m telling you, it’s a job, you know? You set out to do things [and] the harder you work, the more you gather, the more you have to throw away, and the more you’re left with that [becomes] the part…”

“All of us are trying to achieve 100 percent in our work,” D’Onofrio added. “That's all we struggle to do…. We never do, but we never stop trying until the day we die…. It's that struggle to achieve 100 percent. That's where our performance lies, and that's what the audience gets. They get the struggle….”

Develop your malleability: Because Levieva began her artistic career as a trained dancer and gymnast, she knew the value of hitting her mark. 

“If there’s [one] muscle that I would encourage anyone [to develop, it] is the ability to let go of things easily and be malleable,” she told us. “I think in the beginning, I was so keen on developing the thing that’s going to work all the time, that’s going to be bulletproof and that is going to get things ‘right’ because I was a gymnast, so I had that mentality of getting the high score. And I’ve just learned that no—creating, acting, it’s about the ability to say, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna see what I need today.’ But if I have all that stuff [from training] behind me, and I have the foundation, then I’ll have a big suitcase of tools to pull from and I’m not, like, searching for it.”

Look to the little wins for motivation: Everyone must start somewhere, and for Bernthal, that meant treating every open casting call as his own personal audience. As Bernthal told us, “You will get your shot, but don’t waste years of your life banging down doors trying to get in that room. Worry about what you’ll do when you get in there,” Bernthal shared. “Have five monologues in your pocket ready to throw down, and be able to walk the walk; don’t just talk about it.”

“[Y]ou’ve got to remind yourself how lucky you are to be doing this, even when it’s not working out,” he told the New York Times. “Look, when I was starting out and I was going through really hard times, my wife was an ICU trauma nurse, so there’d be plenty of times I would get home and I would have tears in my eyes of frustration, and then my wife would talk about her day. The things she was encountering—holding somebody’s hand as they were passing, or letting somebody know that they weren’t going to ever see a family member again—just put it all in such clear perspective for me.”