According to a new rumor, Marvel’s rewrite of Daredevil: Born Again has corrected one of its first draft’s worst errors and officially re-enlisted the talents of actors Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson to respectively reprise their fan-favorite roles as the two main members of The Man Without Fear’s supporting cast, Karen Page and Foggy Nelson.
Word of Woll and Henson’s return was first broken by veteran Hollywood entertainment reporter Jeff Sneider.
Writing for his own personal The InSneider scoop outlet, Sneider explicitly confirmed on January 12th that “Elden Henson and @DeborahAnnWoll return as Foggy Nelson and Karen Page in Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again.”
Notably, should this casting move pan out to be true, it would represent a major deviation between the series’ supposed original incarnation and its current ‘back-to-the-drawing-board’ rewrite, the former of which would have reportedly relegated the titular hero’s two best friends to the cutting room floor.
The pair’s alleged dropping from The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen television return was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit and Aaron Couch, who in March 2023 learned from alleged insider sources that while a majority of the original Netflix Daredevil cast – including Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin – were set to return for the series’ Disney Plus revival, Woll and Henson would not be joining them.
“Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson, who played classic supporting characters Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, respectively, are not on the roll call for the Marvel series,” the pair relayed. “It is also unclear whether those characters will be recast or excised from the story.”
Further confirmation as to Woll and Henson’s dropping from Daredevil’s supporting cast was further given in October 2023, courtesy of an official series production filing made with the U.S. Copyright Office regarding its premiere episode.
Therein, Marvel Studios provided a comprehensive list of Born Again‘s “main cast”, its large roster notably featuring no mention whatsoever of either the two actors or their respective characters.
And though confirmed details as to just how the series planned to address their absences have yet to be revealed, following the announcement that same month that Marvel had chosen to completely scrap their initial take on Born Again due to quality concerns, noted scooper CanWeGetSomeToast alleged that it would have somehow involved Daredevil failing to save Foggy’s life.
“Originally, Daredevil: Born Again had Matthew hang up the Devil’s cowl for over a year after failing to save Foggy,” wrote the scooper. “Kingpin would’ve been Mayor, winning on a campaign of backing law enforcement while discouraging street level heroes like Punisher, Daredevil… and Spider-Man.”
Interestingly, CanWeGetSomeToast also claimed at the time that “the rework won’t be changing any of the principal cast.”
However, given the apparent earnest effort Marvel is making at righting Daredevil’s ship – as indicated by the fact that, in reworking Born Again, they actually chose to hire both a dedicated showrunner and directorial team – it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the studio’s plans have changed in the three months since the scooper’s initial post.
As of writing, neither Woll, nor Henson, nor anyone associated with Daredevil: Born Again have yet to offer comment on Sneider’s scoop.
