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Daredevil: Born Again's climactic Kingpin fight has a very specific comic book origin, according to filmmakers

The fight between Daredevil and Kingpin in Daredevil: Born Again season 2 took a page from an InHyuk Lee Devil's Reign cover

Lee Inhyuk's variant cover for Devil's Reign #1
Image credit: Marvel Comics

The first hallway fight scene of the Netflix Daredevil show set the bar high for Marvel's Man Without Fear onscreen. And for Daredevil: Born Again season 2's action director, Philip J Silvera, had a tall order to accomplish in designing fights that could wow fans. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Silvera broke down where the inspiration for the climactic fight between Kingpin and Daredevil came from in season 2, episode 6 ("Requiem"). "One of the key things about Daredevil sequences is that everything comes from a place of emotion when we design these fights — never punches and kicks. It’s so many conversations on who the characters are and where they at."

"When Vincent [D'Onofrio] is in control of the sequence, we have a very steady handheld moment and then when Daredevil’s moving around, we go back to this in your face handheld moment." The article also noted that the action director "also took inspiration from the 'Devil’s Reign' run of comics by writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Marco Checchetto: 'It’s the iconic moment where Daredevil wraps his baton around Kingpin’s head.'"

I think what Silvera is referring to is the 1:25 incentive variant from Devil's Reign #1 by InHyuk Lee, which has Daredevil striking nearly the same pose while battling Kingpin. On Instagram, Lee reposted his Devil's Reign #1 cover with a caption that began with, "I heard the news that a scene based on my Daredevil vs. Kingpin illustration was recreated in Daredevil Born Again. Thank you for bringing it to life so wonderfully!" 

Devil's Reign #1 1:25 variant cover by Lee Inhyuk
Image credit: Marvel Comics

As Sam Raimi can tell you, it's no small feat to recreate an image from comic books in-camera with actors in space. The Raimi Spider-Man trilogy sought to recreate the physicality of Spider-Man's body as drawn by Todd McFarlane, but Sam Raimi soon discovered that no one, not even contortionists from Cirque du Soleil, could successfully do the poses from Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man covers. It's just not humanly possible because we have, you know, bones. 

Daredevil: Born Again season 2 is streaming now on Disney+. 


Jules Chin Greene

Jules Chin Greene: Jules Chin Greene is a journalist and Jack Kirby enthusiast. He has written about comics, video games, movies, and television for sites such as Nerdist, AIPT, and Multiverse of Color.

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