I spoke with Daredevil: Born Again actors Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock) and Wilson Bethel (Bullseye) at Los Angeles Comic Con this past Saturday during which time they reflected on how “purely coincidental” the timeliness of the first season was.
Daredevil: Born Again, Season One saw a convicted felon win over voters and, once in power, proceed to weaponize law enforcement against his enemies while also seeking to personally profit from his political position. One could be forgiven for perceiving some similarities between the show’s villain, Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin, and the current occupant of the White House.
“There might have been a time when a convicted felon winning a prominent political office would seem unrealistic – but in 2025, it feels ripped from today’s headlines,” Joshua Yehl observed in his Daredevil: Born Again series premiere review. “That said, the show sidesteps any specific real-world politics and instead focuses on exploring themes of empowering bullies and the responsibility one has to stand up to them.”
While the political timeliness of the first season can be chalked up to coincidence as Donald Trump had not yet won a second term as President of the United States, Season 2 (and Season 3, which shoots next spring) are being produced at a time when the President’s words and deeds dominate the daily news cycle.
Comparisons between Fisk and Trump seem inescapable for the show going forward, even though Charlie Cox told me any such similarities between the two men are “entirely accidental.” (It’s not the first time that those involved with the show have denied that Fisk is an allegory for Trump.)
“I think it’s really, really important at this point to say that those similarities, if people see them, are purely coincidental. That really is the case,” Cox said. “If you think about it, Vincent D’Onofrio built that character in 2014. In 2014, if you just said the name of the president and the word president, you’d have been laughed at.”
Wilson Bethel concurred with Cox, saying, “That Season One of Born Again was written before our current president was president. So I mean, look, what the show clearly explores in some really profound, interesting ways are what can happen if too much power gets in the wrong hands. You can look into that how you will. Certainly, there’s been plenty of examples of that throughout history. But we may or may not be in one.”
Cox added: “Every time you have a scene with Frank Castle in the 10 years we’ve been doing it, every time there’s a scene, someone’s going to say, ‘It doesn’t feel like it’s a very good time to be shooting a hero who’s got a gun.’ You know what I mean? I feel like it’s really important to allow, and chuckle at, and enjoy some coincidences that may be there. But it’s also important to stipulate that they are entirely accidental.”
For more from my interview, find out how “heartbreaking” it was for Wilson Bethel to lose the role of Captain America to Chris Evans.
