Daredevil: Born Again Adds Sopranos Prequel Star Michael Gandolfini

Daredevil: Born Again has officially found its first new cast member. On Thursday, reports confirmed that actor Michael Gandolfini is set to star in the upcoming Disney+ revival in a “major role.” The news of Gandolfini’s casting was originally reported on Daniel ‘Daniel RPK’ Richtman’s Patreon page. Gandolfini’s breakout role was in HBO’s The Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark, in which he portrayed the younger version of Tony Soprano (a role originated by his late father, James Gandolfini). His filmography also includes The Offer and Cherry. According to reports, Gandolfini could possibly be playing “an ambitious guy from Staten Island referred to as Liam.”

Gandolfini marks the first new addition to Born Again’s ensemble, which is led by Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin. No other cast members — either new, or from the existing lore of Netflix’s previous Daredevil series — have been confirmed yet. 

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After the surprise cancellation of Daredevil, Cox has appeared twice in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — in Spider-Man: No Way Home in late 2021, and in an episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law earlier this year.

“I’ve loved every minute of it,” Cox told ComicBook.com earlier this year. “And right now I’m just buzzing that it’s kind of happening again, it’s starting up again. And I don’t know where it’s going, I don’t know how much involvement I’m going to have, I don’t know what it’s leading to, but it feels like we’re born again. And so I feel like I’m getting a second chance at the dream job that has… I refer to it as, “There’s the gift that keeps on giving.” It’s been so good to me, I’ve had such a good time doing it, I love playing the character, I love the stories. I’ve been doing other stuff, I’ve been working on my kids, but about a month ago, I re-upped my Marvel Unlimited account. And I started reading the comics from the beginning again, which I haven’t done since we started the show all those years ago.”

“And it’s funny, I’m rereading the Joe Quesada, Kevin Smith, the Guardian Devil from ’98,” Cox continued. “And it’s funny, I haven’t read it since I read it before we started shooting the show. And it’s funny reading it now, I’m recognizing so many moments that we kind of took. Because right at the beginning of that series, there is a confessional that is almost how we started our show. And at the time I hadn’t read it enough to put the two together, but like he’s in a confessional basically saying similar lines to what I said in that booth at the beginning of episode one, season one. So it’s really fun to reread it and to be able to kind of identify little moments that were kind of little Easter eggs, the ones I was unaware of at the time.”

What do you think of Michael Gandolfini joining Daredevil: Born Again? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Daredevil: Born Again is expected to be released on Disney+ in the spring of 2024. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can do that right here. 

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h/t: Deadline