Warning: This article contains spoilers from Daredevil: Born Again episode 1.
Deborah Ann Woll went viral last August for one of the more wholesome moments to percolate the internet these days. Appearing on REAL ONES, the podcast hosted by her former Daredevil and The Punisher costar Jon Bernthal, the True Blood veteran got on the topic of Dungeons & Dragons. After hosting her own tabletop games and writing her own campaigns, she now has clout in the community. Bernthal, however, had no idea what the heck she was talking about.
“It’s like a game, but, like, you imagine you’re, like, in the game, right?” an affably boisterous and inquisitive Bernthal asked his longtime friend.
Woll began to explain what the game actually entails, but then she got a novel idea. “Do you want to play D&D?” she asked Bernthal. The clip of what transpires traveled to the furthest reaches of TikTok and YouTube, even beyond the typical D&D communities: Woll imagined on the spot a mini game for Bernthal to play, and the eyes of the typically machismo Punisher star lit up with enthusiasm as he went through the steps.
Woll has since been celebrated for the pure joy this simplistic approach incited online. “For so long I didn’t play because I thought you needed an invitation or you had to have friends who played or there was some sort of barrier to getting started,” she tells Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview. “So to have the opportunity to expose a whole bunch of people who might have misinformed ideas about what this game is or [who] think it’s too hard or think it’s cards or think it’s math, that was a dream come true. I hope I inspired a lot of people to pick it up and try.”
Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’. Giovanni Rufino/Marvel
The clip was also joyous for Daredevil fans. It had been six years, at the time, since that show — and all of the Marvel spinoffs on Netflix, including The Punisher — were canceled toward the end of 2018. And yet Woll and Bernthal were still clearly chums through it all. Woll remembers that extended limbo period where her Marvel future, and that of her colleagues, seemed to be finished. “You know actors. ‘Everything’s horrible, we’re never going to work again,'” she recalls. “We’re the worst people to ask that question because we have no sense of reality — unless you’re Vincent D’Onofrio.” The Wilson Fisk/Kingpin star from the original Netflix run has too strong of a self-confidence to be affected by that sensation, she comments.
But to her earlier point, in 2020 Woll appeared on Joe Q’s Mornin’ Warm Up, the podcast hosted by Joe Quesada, Marvel’s creative director at the time. (He since left the company.) During the conversation, the teary-eyed actress can be heard fearing for her longevity as a performer after Daredevil. “I’m just really wondering whether I’ll get to work again, whether anyone wants to work with me again, and whether I still have it, all of those scary things,” she said at the time.
Addressing it now with EW, Woll says those were genuine emotions. “We think of careers as being a ladder,” she says. “You keep stepping up and up, but acting isn’t like that; most art forms are not. There are peaks and valleys. You have a peak doing a show like Daredevil, and then inevitably you’re probably going to have a valley, and that’s a tricky time. It’s hard to feel good about yourself or good about your work. My valley coincided with a pandemic, so that really made some of that harder.”
That’s when she pivoted to the world of D&D, appearing on livestreams and becoming a personality within the community. But now, years later, Woll, and a host of her other Daredevil costars, are officially back — and it feels oh so good. She joins D’Onofrio, Bernthal, Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), Ayelet Zurer (Vanessa Fisk), and Wilson Bethel (Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye) in Daredevil: Born Again, the revival series with a new home within the Marvel Cinematic Universe on Disney+. (The first two episodes are streaming now.) Despite playing the best friends of the title character, Woll and Henson were not originally planned for roles in Born Again. It was only after Marvel revamped their approach, having reevaluated the show during the 2023 actors’ strike, that new scenes were shot and they were added back in.
Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’. Giovanni Rufino/Marvel
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“Yeah, I’ve been through a roller coaster of feelings about it,” Woll admits of first seeing Born Again continue without her to now seeing herself become an important part of its fabric. “The thing to always remember is that even if something might feel personal, it’s just not. This business is too enormous for anything to be personal,” she adds. “There’s just decisions being made. I don’t know, I’ve always found it to be much more of a pleasant experience to champion the people that I care about and love. It’s so rare for something to come back in a significant way after so many years. So being asked back after the fact was just icing on the cake.”
However, the context of her return is laced with tragedy — narratively speaking. Within the first 10 minutes of Daredevil: Born Again, the joyous reunion of Cox’s Matt, Woll’s Karen, and Henson’s Foggy on screen is marred when Bethel’s Bullseye shoots and kills Foggy, who dies in the arms of a blood-splattered Karen. The trio were captured by paparazzi filming this moment in New York City on the exterior set of Josie’s bar, though the producers tried to preserve the reveal for showtime.
Woll understands the bold moment from a story perspective. “There has to be loss in stories,” she remarks. “That’s a deep part of how you tell things.” However, she adds, “For actors, we lose on two levels: We lose the character that we love watching and we don’t get to work with that actor again necessarily.” Then there’s the more low-key feeling of delight amid such chaos: “You’re also a little excited for it because you want to play it,” Woll says, referencing the format of the “oner.”
The entire sequence of Foggy’s death is filmed in one continuous, unbroken shot, reminiscent of the filmmaking moments that defined the original Daredevil drama. It starts with the gunfire and continues with the Man Without Fear’s close-combat brawl with Bullseye through Josie’s, up the adjoining apartment building stairs, and onto the roof, all while Karen desperately tries to tend to Foggy outside on the pavement in real time.
Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson). Giovanni Rufino/Marvel
“That sequence is going up on YouTube and staying there for the rest of eternity,” Woll says.
To prepare for the intricate, violent ensemble ballet that must occur to achieve every beat of the oner, Woll recalls singing and daydreaming about Henson and Foggy at home in advance, reminding herself what the character meant to Karen and what they are losing without him there. Fear is also a fundamental part of the Daredevil story — he’s called the Man Without Fear for a reason. So she focused on “what Karen’s fears were about, what that would do to them,” she says.
Ultimately, “This isn’t going to be a moment that is easily cast off for the sake of a plot point,” Woll continues. “This is something that these characters are going to grapple with heavily for a long time, especially for me. He dies in my arms. That is something you will never forget for the rest of your life.”
Woll and Henson are now confirmed to return for Daredevil: Born Again season 2, EW previously reported. The new season is currently filming, though the context of those character comebacks are still a mystery. “There are threads that are not easily severed,” Woll says, referring to the core trio of Matt, Karen, and Foggy. “And even with something beyond death, I think there are pieces of that to hold onto. These people will always matter to one another, and how they feel about each other is going to deeply affect the choices that they make. Karen has seen a lot of death in her life — this is one of the worst ones — and Matt has a tendency to feel responsible. They probably can’t escape each other on some level. They’re too alike.
“Now I’m starting to muse a little bit,” Woll admits. Though, musing, as we saw with her viral D&D clip, is always welcome treat.
