'Daredevil' Cast Talks Diet, Stunts, 'Marvel Lockdown'

It’s a good time to be a fan of comic book television: Arrow, The Flash, and Gotham are all returning this week. But the big news remains the triumphant release of Marvel’s Daredevil, which revealed an entirely new side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Dark, driven, and intense to the point that it’s wholly inappropriate for younger fans (showrunner Steven DeKnight calls it “PG-16”), it plays more like six feature-length films than half a network TV season.

We sat down with three of the show’s stars — Charlie Cox, who plays the titular hero; Rosario Dawson, “night nurse” Claire Temple; and Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays the terrifying Wilson Fisk.

Related: Ken Tucker Reviews ‘Daredevil’: A Ready-to-Rock Superhero

Cox discusses the work he did with Joe Strechay of the American Foundation for the Blind (whose job is usually training blind people to do their jobs rather than training the sighted to do the job of being blind) and the physical regimen he had to endure to bulk up for the role. Dawson recalls him “drinking oatmeal,” though she also told us off camera that bulking up may have included the occasional “extra slice” at nearby pizzerias.

Related: See ‘Daredevil’ Season 1 Photos

In the video below, D’Onofrio explains how the show differs from the comics, saying that producers chose to approach the characters “as human beings.” Though the original material definitely influenced them, for him, it was about seeing Wilson Fisk “become more complete.” For those who haven’t already seen the entire series, the story is as much about Fisk’s journey to becoming the Kingpin as it is Murdock’s journey to Daredevil.

Did you binge on the entire series last week? Or do you prefer to savor each episode individually? What are you hoping to see in Season 2? Let us know below.

The full 13-episode season of Marvel’s Daredevil is available on Netflix.