Charlie Cox is Daredevil. As Marvel TV’s answer to Robert Downey Jr., it’s no surprise that the studio felt they couldn’t recast him when the time came to fully fold the Man Without Fear into the MCU. A whole decade after debuting in the role, Cox is now back for Disney Plus’ Daredevil: Born Again revival, cementing his status as one of the franchise’s most popular stars. But it turns out the studio almost made a big mistake when it came to his casting.
It’s hard to imagine it now, but there was a time when fans weren’t all that convinced that the British actor was the best fit for the part — before Daredevil came along, Cox was best known for romantic fantasy film Stardust, about as far from the violent, hoodlum-pounding vigilante as you can get. He soon blew audiences away, however, and made it abundantly clear why he was the natural casting choice. So it’s surprising to hear that he had to convince Marvel not to cast him as another character to start with.
Marvel wanted Charlie Cox for a different Daredevil character (until he channeled his inner Matt Murdock)
Believe it or not, Charlie Cox was originally Marvel’s top choice to play Matt Murdock’s best pal, Foggy Nelson, and not the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen himself. In an interview with British GQ, Cox came clean that he was originally asked to audition for the part of Foggy, before he decided to let out the no-nonsense lawyer within and argue the case for why he should be seen for the main role instead.
Cox recalled that while he was chasing a part in Daredevil, he was feeling directionless in his career and so, when he received that all-important call from Marvel, he was actually attending a weekend wellness retreat in the Scottish Highlands. Due to the spotty signal, he missed the call, but he elected not to go back to civilization and skip the retreat, instead making the bold move to complete the weekend and phone Marvel back on Monday. He’s glad he did as, when he was told the producers wanted him to audition for Foggy, it gave him the confidence to say what he really wanted.
“And for whatever reason, having had this kind of empowering experience, I said, ‘I will come, but I’m only reading for Matt. I’m only reading for the lead,’” he revealed. Thankfully, Marvel accepted, he won the role, and the rest is MCU history. And present. And hopefully future.
We don’t need to see the What If…? timeline out there where Cox was forced into playing Foggy and someone else nabbed Daredevil. There’s every chance the show would’ve floundered within a single season, let alone achieving the popularity to get itself an unlikely reboot 10 years later. Maybe the rest of us could do with a little of Cox’s confident energy when we’re next trying to land our dream job. A lesson to us all: don’t be afraid to let your inner daredevil out sometimes.
