Before Charlie Cox got cast as Daredevil, he thought that his hopes of becoming a superhero were destined never to come true… a thought that stuck around after he first started thinking about the role, for a very particular reason.

“I didn’t know who Daredevil was,” he admitted during his spotlight panel at Rose City Comic Con 2024, laughing. “I was told early on, when I got this job, ‘don’t lie about that, you’ll always be found out.’ But yes, I had not read a Daredevil comic. I had seen the poster [for the Ben Affleck movie] in Los Angeles, I was living there briefly and I’d seen the poster in 2003, but I thought it was, like, an Evel Kinievel-type movie, you know, ‘Daredevil’?”

He continued, “I’d had friends — British actor friends — who’d played superheroes, and that seemed really cool. Andrew [Garfield] is a good friend of mine, I’ve worked with Henry Cavill, it looked really fun to do. Then, you know, when I hit my 30s, I thought, that ship has probably said. I’m too old for that now. And here I am, over 40, and I’m still doing it! Are there any comics where Daredevil has a zimmer frame? Can I keep doing this ’til I’m in my 70s?”

For those wondering, Cox was 32 when Daredevil first debuted on Netflix.

For anyone worried that Charlie Cox didn’t know his Daredevil initially, please don’t be too concerned; he made a point of catching up. “I quickly figured out, through asking a lot of people — especially people who were involved in the making of that first season, where were the good places to begin [in comics]? So I started with [1964’s] #1, and I didn’t go very deep into that — maybe 1 through 10, just to get a sense of that — and then I jumped straight into the Bendis and Maleev stuff. I know Alex Maleev now, I see him at the gym a lot."

It's a surreal, but wonderful thought, imagining Daredevil working out beside the artist who helped shape his performance, but Maleev can't take all the credit by himself. "Obviously, [Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli’s] Born Again, I’m talking about 10 years ago because there was a lot of tonal stuff and a lot of character stuff we were touching on that comes from that comic," Cox said, continuing his list of influential reading material. "Jeph Loeb [and Tim Sale]’s Daredevil: Yellow was important to me, End of Days — David Mack has become another good friend of mine. Chip [Zdarsky]’s run! So now, somehow, I think I’ve gotten through it all.”

Daredevil: Born Again is slated to debut on Disney+ in March 2025.

Fear not, we have the essentials when it comes to Marvel's Daredevil. From the best Daredevil stories of all time, to a guide to watching Daredevil, a comprehensive guide to Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+, Marvel's Daredevil actors, ranked from Charlie Cox to Ben Affleck and even Rex Smith, how Frank Miller accidentally killed a Daredevil cartoon (and Marvel killed a book to avoid pissing him off), and even that time we caught Daredevil actor Charlie Cox sneaking into New York Comic Con as Bluey.