Warning: MASSIVE spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again episodes 1 & 2 ahead!
Daredevil: Born Again directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson say directing that horrible death scene for Foggy (that I’m still not over) was no easy feat.
“We cannot tell you the amount of thought that was put into basically the first 15 minutes, everything went under a microscope,” Benson tells GamesRadar+. “But particularly those first 15 minutes, because we’re fans of the show, we know how it feels. It felt bad to direct it. We wanted it to feel wrong. It was like, wait, this is the death he gets? You know, just shot on the street out of nowhere. And it feels that way. It feels unfair. And that kicks off a one-shot fight scene that we’re very proud of.”
In the first 15 minutes of Daredevil: Born Again season 1 episode 1, Bullseye shoots Foggy dead. The set up of the shot, though, is one that’s straight out of a horror movie (or The Sopranos, for that matter). While Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) are facing each other, Foggy is shot in the back, and the blood sprays all over Karen. It’s gruesome and it sets the tone for the entire season.
“It kind of kicks off this idea of the camera becoming this force that’s representing this crisis of faith that Matt’s gonna have to go through for the rest of the season,” Benson adds.
“[We were] just kind of holding wide in a shot you’d never expect someone to be killed in. It’s unexpected for all of us. The unfairness of it really mattered: it felt unfair to lose him.”
It’s wild to think that Foggy’s death initially happened off-screen, and we, the audience, were supposed to watch Matt Murdock’s personality change in response to the loss of his best friend – but without knowing or seeing how it happened, how would we know just how deeply he was affected? And I’m only assuming we wouldn’t truly know because Foggy and Karen were not part of the cast in the initial revival episodes.
“The image you’re talking about – the way that [Deborah Ann Woll] played it – if I had to try to describe it in a moment, it’s so profoundly horrible. It’s almost like she can’t process it. She must be cognitively almost reacting to a nightmare. It can’t possibly be real. And it’s like all there in her face and it’s just so sad and super effective. She nailed that.”
The first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are out now on Disney Plus. You can stay up to date on new episodes with our Daredevil: Born Again release schedule.
For more, check out our list of the best new TV shows coming your way in 2024 and beyond, or check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows you need to know about.
