Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 star Matthew Lillard reveals more details about his mystery character going up against Kingpin: "He is not impressed”

The rivalry between Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) may continue to simmer as Daredevil: Born Again moves into its second season, but Fisk’s problems won’t end with Hell’s Kitchen’s resident vigilante. A new adversary is set to enter the picture: Matthew Lillard’s mysterious Mr. Charles.

Marvel is keeping plot specifics close to the chest, yet Lillard has offered a few telling hints about what kind of threat his character poses — and why even the newly installed mayor of New York might find himself outmatched in ways brute force and political clout can’t easily solve.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Lillard explained that landing the role came through an unexpected route: a long-running Dungeons & Dragons game with several high-profile TV creators. “I played Dungeons & Dragons with three incredible showrunners,” he said, naming Dario Scardapane (the showrunner of Daredevil), Matt Nix (working on the new Baywatch), and Elwood Reid (Tracker). Lillard added that he serves as their dungeon master, and that actor Abraham Benrubi also plays with the group.

That off-screen collaboration eventually became an on-screen opportunity. According to Lillard, Scardapane brought him in to portray Mr. Charles — a figure who sounds less like a street-level operator and more like a shadow government specialist. Lillard described him as “a CIA spook,” someone who “controls power from afar,” quietly influencing outcomes on a global scale. “He helps nations rise and fall,” Lillard said, emphasizing that the character operates in secrecy and prefers the unseen leverage of intelligence and manipulation to public displays of dominance.

Crucially, Mr. Charles isn’t intimidated by Fisk. Lillard noted that his character is “not impressed by the powers of D’Onofrio’s character at all,” setting up what he teased as a “really delicious struggle over power” between the two. In other words, Fisk may be used to owning a room — but Mr. Charles sounds like the kind of man who owns the building, the permits, and the people pulling the strings behind the scenes.

With Fisk forced to confront a threat that doesn’t wear a mask or fight in alleyways, the series could push its political and espionage angles further than before — and test whether the Kingpin’s brand of authority can withstand a more clandestine, institutional kind of power.

Daredevil: Born Again returns to Disney+ on March 24.

Nick Staniforth — Contributing Writer

Nick is a freelancer whose work has appeared at Screen Rant, The Digital Fix, and Looper. He loves movies, TV, DC, and Marvel — and insists the best Robin Hood is still a talking fox.

Source: Gamesradar