Daredevil, serving as a launchpad of sorts to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s continued expansion on the small screen via Netflix, isn’t taking any chances in casting. So far, the major players joining Daredevil’s cast are all proven, acclaimed and recognizable talent. As such, all of the official casting announcements have been released separately with some time apart by Marvel as part of their early marketing.
Joining the Netflix series as the MCU’s version of Foggy Nelson is Elden Henson, a long-time actor who began his career as a child star and earned a big break starring in The Mighty Ducks and its sequels. He’s appeared in several high profile films from Idle Hands and The Butterfly Effect to Deja Vu and Jobs, and he’ll be seen again shortly on in Parts 1 and 2 of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.
Henson joins Charlie Cox who plays the titular lead, Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, a.k.a The Kingpin, and Rosario Dawson in an unspecified lead role. If Dawson is playing a love interest such as Karen Page from Marvel Comics, we could see a little bit of romantic friction between the three since Foggy also has feelings for Page. This being the MCU however, there can be twists and turns on that and the fact that Marvel is hiding Dawson’s character’s identity plays into the possibility that there’s a lot of intentional mystery about her role in the story.
Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s Head of Television:
“Elden plays one of the most important characters in the world of ‘Marvel’s Daredevil,’ and we’re thrilled to see Foggy Nelson brought to life by such an incredibly talented actor. He perfectly captures the heart and soul of this series, bringing an added resonance to Matt Murdock’s fight against the injustice in their great city.
Foggy Nelson is the best friend of Matt Murdock aka Daredevil and was previously played by Iron Man director Jon Favreau opposite Ben Affleck’s Murdock in 2003’s Daredevil from Twentieth Century Fox. Murdock is a lawyer by day when not suited up in his red suit as The Man Without Fear and Nelson is his law partner. They were longtime friends before that, attending schools together, with Murdock even protecting Nelson from bullies. Depending how successful Marvel’s Netflix test is, we could see Murdock and Nelson for a very long time together and there are decades of stories and life events shared between the two in the lore to draw from. Daredevil begins shooting in New York this year for a 2015 premiere.
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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2 begins airing on ABC this fall. Daredevil releases on Netflix in 2015.
On the film side, Guardians of the Galaxy opens August 1, 2014, The Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1, 2015, Ant-Man on July 17, 2015, Captain America 3 on May 6 2016, and unannounced films for July 8 2016 and May 5 2017.
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