Following the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse panel at New York Comic Con on Saturday, October 6, 2018 was Marvel’s Daredevil panel. We had already been in the room, the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, since before 10:00am that day for the Good Omens panel, which does not get cleared between panels, so we were good to go.
As is the norm for Marvel Television panels, Jeph Loeb, the head of Marvel Television, came out first to welcome everyone. He started things off by showing a clip of highlights from the Marvel Netflix shows.
Loeb thanked the fans for supporting the Marvel Television series, as well as thanked a long list of people at Marvel Television and Netflix for their contributions.
He then called out the panelists: new showrunner Erik Oleson, Jay Ali (Ray Nadeem), Joanne Whalley (Sister Maggie), Wilson Bethel (Dex), Elden Henson (Foggy), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen), Vincent D’Onofrio (Fisk), and Daredevil himself, Charlie Cox.
Loeb announced that just a week ago, Charlie Cox had gotten married to Sam Thomas, who was in the audience. He had her stand, and everyone cheered.
After Loeb reminded us that at the end of The Defenders, Marvel had dropped a building on Cox’s character, Matt Murdock, Cox told us that when Season 3 of Daredevil opens, Matt is at an “all time low” — or at least Cox hoped that was the case, as he wasn’t sure you could go much lower than that! As a result, throughout Season 3, Matt goes through a process of re-healing, not just physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. Sister Maggie, played by one of Cox’s heroes, Joanne Whalley, helps him through this process. Cox spoke about this allowing him to explore a new side to Matt, a new vulnerability that hadn’t been touched on before.
Whalley admitted that she hadn’t read a comic book in her life, and had no idea what to expect going in. However, she did point out that this production was the most excited she’d seen a cast about receiving each script, as they don’t know what’s going to happen, and get the scripts as they go along.
We then got to watch a clip of Matt in bed, as we saw him at the end of The Defenders, as Sister Maggie comes in and shoos away a couple of children who have come in to ask what happened to him. He tells her that they’re scared of her, but she replies that he was too when he was their age. She changes his gauze and says that she shouldn’t be surprised by this, as he was always “pissed off” from losing his eyesight. She refers to him as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, and he’s surprised that she’s heard of him. He tells her that losing his eyesight sharpened his senses, but that those days are behind him now that he’s deaf in one ear and can’t even walk to the bathroom on his own. She asks him to leave now that he’s “out of the woods” and offers to call someone for him. However, he replies, “There’s no one.”
Eric Oleson talked about how Maggie provides a “spiritual and moral compass” to Matt this season, helping him process what he’s gone through over the past couple seasons. He went on to say that this was critical to where Matt ends up this season.
Oleson also said that he is a big fan of dramas that treat all characters like the hero of their own story and build out others’ journeys. So he set out to make it so that every character’s storyline plays an integral part, and that you can’t cut out any character without having the whole story fall apart. As such, Karen’s and Foggy’s storylines are essential to fight against fear: the power of the press, and the power of collective action, love, friendship, and faith.
We watched another clip, in which Karen and Foggy meet up at a meat shop. Apparently Foggy is still with Marci, because he’s worried about people thinking he’s cheating on her with Karen. They discuss whether a vigilante is Matt or not. Foggy doesn’t believe it is him, because if it was, he would have reached out to them. However, Karen calls him out, saying she knows Foggy doesn’t really believe that, because he keeps saying that Matt is “gone” rather than “dead.” Foggy replies that he wishes it was him, but it’s not, because Matt is dead. Karen is upset that Foggy doesn’t want to try to find out for sure if it’s him or not, and storms off.
Elden Henson said that this season, Foggy is trying to find out who he is without Matt. We also get to meet some of Foggy’s family this season.
As for Karen, Woll said that she feels adrift, considering how she left things with Matt, and the fact that Foggy is preoccupied with his life. Therefore, she is holding on to her belief that Matt is not gone. Otherwise, there would be nothing for her.
Jay Ali told us a little about his character, FBI Agent Nadeem, who gets put in charge of Wilson Fisk. “And it goes really well,” he joked.
We then watched a clip of Nadeem’s first interaction with Fisk. Nadeem begins to question Fisk in the interrogation room, but Fisk asks Nadeem if there’s anyone in his life who he loves so much he’d do anything to protect them. Nadeem takes this as a threat. However, Fisk explains that he doesn’t want the woman that he loves to have to pay for his mistakes, and he would do anything to protect her. “I want to make a deal,” Fisk tells Agent Nadeem.
Vincent D’Onofrio teased that this season Fisk notices a “thread of disease” in a certain person, and discovers that if he pulls that thread hard enough, he’ll get what he wants — Vanessa back in his life. Once he has her, he is complete. But then there’s “a little gnat” that bothers him.
Cox responded by saying, “It’s weird to be a main character and also a gnat.” But then he admitted, “It’s an honor to be a gnat in the world of Vincent D’Onofrio!” He went on to gush about how lucky they were to have D’Onofrio on the show.
As for action on the show this season, Oleson said that he wanted the action sequences to have “real emotional stakes.” He wanted it to be unpredictable, and he wanted Matt Murdock to occasionally lose a fight — and for there to be “real consequences” as a result. Oleson brought up the hallway fight from Season 1 and teased, “Yeah… We topped that.” Apparently this new action sequence is so intricate that Oleson had to call Loeb to ask permission to take a day off from filming just so that the crew could rehearse that scene! Oleson did not want to reveal who the director was because that would spoil when the scene comes up.
We didn’t get to see a clip of that particular scene, but we did get to see a clip of an action scene. In the scene, Matt Murdock goes to a parking garage and confronts a lawyer in his car to find out what Fisk is getting out of the deal he made. The lawyer is reluctant to reveal any information, but Matt is “persuasive” and the man tells Matt that all charges against “Fisk’s woman” will be dropped. Matt asks where Vanessa is, but he hears noises and realizes he has to make his getaway. He manages to take out a few FBI agents, and sneakily avoid a few, but eventually has to fight.
Loeb commented that those FBI agents were a little easy to get around. But he alluded to another FBI agent named Dex, and we watched a clip involving him.
In this clip, Fisk is being transported when his vehicle comes under attack. The vehicle flips, and he is told to stay in the car, which has bulletproof glass, while his handlers fight off the attackers. The attackers, realizing they can’t shoot through the glass, begin to saw through it to get to him. But FBI agent Dex steps in and guns everyone down with swift accuracy — even though a couple of them say that they surrender. He thereby rescues Fisk, and instructs the convict not to move.
This was actually the first time that any of the panelists had seen this clip, and Wilson Bethel was in awe of how it turned out. Loeb commented how this clip was the beginning of a relationship between Bethel’s character, Dex, and Fisk. Bethel told us that much like D’Onofrio had taken him under his wing, Fisk takes Dex under his wing — though that does not end up with such positive results. Loeb said that Dex’s actions begged the question, “What the hell is wrong with you?” So we then watched a clip which answered that question.
The clip is more of a montage, showing the unraveling of Dex, who is questioned about his use of lethal force in the ambush. He is offended, saying that if he had been wearing a mask, he would be being hailed as a hero. The clip continues until ultimately it shows him wearing Daredevil’s costume, and calling himself Daredevil.
Loeb admitted it was probably the worst kept secret in the history of Marvel, but this season of Daredevil will tell the origin story of a certain character, which he left to Bethel to have the pleasure of announcing. (Apparently up to this point, Bethel had merely been listed as “FBI Agent #2.”) Bethel then said how much of an honor it was to tell the origin story of how Benjamin Poindexter becomes Bullseye. At this, Charlie Cox rushed over to Bethel and drew a bullseye on his forehead!
Going back to the subject Fisk, Loeb teased that we might have earned the privilege of seeing Kingpin in his classic white suit this season. Oleson talked about how Dex is teetering on the edge of lightness and darkness, and we’ll see how Fisk is able to turn someone into an iconic villain through psychological manipulation. Bethel interjected, “It gets very, very weird.” Oleson agreed, saying that Marvel allowed them a lot of room to do “some really cool stuff” and get deep into how Dex becomes Bullseye.
D’Onofrio commented that to play a character like Bullseye, you had to “have a lot of guts.” He recognized this immediately in Bethel, and they worked together closely on some very intense moments.
Jay Ali admitted that his character, Nadeem, has a lot to answer for. Ali revealed that all the characters this season get to a point where they have to choose the darkness or the light, teasing, “We’ll see what happens with me.”
Audience members were given the chance to ask questions as well, although Loeb wanted them to be limited to “yes” or “no” type questions.
One question was whether it hurt D’Onofrio’s throat to talk in his low voice. D’Onofrio recalled that when he first came on to do the show, Loeb had emphasized how important the voice was. He told us that the script influenced him to find the voice in an emotional way. As a method actor, he did an “effective memory” exercise, where you find an event in your life and recreate it. He then turned those emotions into a guttural sound.
We also learned that we will get Karen’s backstory this season.
As for whether the Defenders are coming back, Loeb answered, “It’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
An audience member tried to ask about the cast members appearing in the MCU movies, but Loeb avoided the question, mentioning something about scheduling, then quickly changing the subject to the audience getting not one, but two treats.
The first treat was a clip of Daredevil and Bullseye facing off in a fight.
The clip showed Foggy in a dark room, looking at Daredevil — but then Daredevil throws a weapon at him, which Matt, dressed in his vigilante outfit, intercepts just in time. This is actually Dex dressed as Daredevil. Foggy takes the first chance he can to run to safety in another room, where Karen and some FBI agents are waiting. Matt asks the other man who he is, and he replies, “I’m Daredevil.” The two begin to fight, and it seems they are pretty evenly matched. Matt tries to hide behind some cover, but Dex is able to throw an object, which ricochets off the wall, and hits Matt. Matt then throws an object to make noise and make Dex thinks he’s somewhere he’s not. It works at first, but then Dex soon catches up to Matt and knocks over a shelf on him, then stomps him in the face. End scene. What a cliffhanger. How is Matt going to come back from this? I guess we’ll have to watch and find out!
The next treat, if audience members stayed in their seats, was an NYCC 2018 exclusive Daredevil poster, which we noticed was actually numbered, in handwriting, out of 4,600 in the bottom right corner.
With that, the panel wrapped up. Given the length of the panel, 1:30pm-2:45pm, I had thought we might have gotten to watch the first episode of the season. As you can see, that didn’t happen. However, we did get quite a few lengthy clips. Looking forward to seeing Daredevil Season 3 when it becomes available on Netflix on October 19!
That ended our time in Madison Square Garden for the day. As we got up to exit, we were warned that if we leave the building, we would not be able to get back in, as there was a “small mob” of people outside waiting to get in. The remaining panels in the room for that day were Star Trek: Discovery, Outlander, and The Walking Dead.
You can view more of our photos of the Daredevil panel at New York Comic Con 2018 below.
