Abhiroop Das
Created by Matt Corman, Chris Ord, and Dario Scardapane, Disney+’s ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ brings back The Man Without Fear to hunt down his biggest opponent yet: Mayor Fisk. Once known as Kingpin, New York’s most feared crime lord, Fisk now plans to create a lawless island within the city bounds, where he and his clique can run their criminal enterprises to their heart’s content. To do so, Fisk even goes the extra mile and puts most vigilantes in jail, which leaves it up to Matt Murdock and his newly formed team to put things to an end before they can get any worse. What even he can’t predict, however, is that Fisk is getting some serious help from someone inside the system, particularly, Mr. Charles. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Mr. Charles is the Mysterious CIA Operative Who Might Become Kingpin’s Matador
Mr. Charles makes his grand entry in season 2 of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ as the ever-so-elusive CIA operative who is ready to get into bed with Fisk. From what we know, Charles appears to be working directly under Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, whom we know as the Director of the CIA who appears in the ‘Black Widow‘ and ‘Black Panther‘ movies, as well as in ‘Thunderbolts*.’ Just like his superior, Charles doesn’t hesitate to dabble in corruption and inhumane practices to get the job done, and in that department, he almost outdoes Kingpin himself. Tasked with clean-up after the catastrophic political failure that is the Northern Star ship sinking, Charles suggests eliminating the captain and his team, and replacing them with workers doomed to die from the get-go.
The fact that we don’t even know Charles’ full name, much less anything about him, is most likely by design, as this character revels in working from the shadows and exercising his powers without anyone realising. It is also important here that Charles doesn’t seem to have any superpowers and isn’t straight-up superhuman like Kingpin either. With no magical abilities to rely on, he has nothing but his own cunning, which seems to have been successful in making him one of the most enigmatic figures introduced in the MCU thus far. To that end, he serves as the perfect foil to characters like Mephisto from ‘Iron Heart,’ who occupy a similar role narratively, but are backed by fantastical powers. We can expect Mr. Charles to engage in many more mind tricks from here on out, with a constant doubt about who his real target is.
Matthew Lillard’s Character in Daredevil Born Again is Possibly an MCU Original
It appears that Matthew Lillard, in the second season, isn’t exactly based on an established character in the Marvel comics. There is a mention of a Mr. Charles in the comics’ Army and Air Force Exchange Service series, but he is a minor character described as being in charge of illegal drilling in Roxxon Discovery. While Roxxon Corporation is an actual part of the ‘Daredevil’ universe, it doesn’t exactly strengthen the case for this being a direct parallel. Instead, it is more likely that the creators were vaguely inspired by the comics’ version of Mr. Charles but have gone ahead to create a unique character tailored to fit the storytelling demands of ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
With the character of Mr. Charles, Matthew Lillard is continuing his streak of playing antagonistic figures such as Lance Durand in the second season of ‘Cross.’ Provided that his storyline isn’t contained within the scope of this season, fans might be able to spot Lillard outside of the ‘Daredevil’ series, especially now that the CIA is taking over as a villainous entity in the MCU. Lillard is perhaps best known for his role in comedy movies such as ‘SLC Punk!’ and ‘Scooby-Doo,’ where he essays Stevo and Shaggy, respectively. However, with gray roles like William Afton in ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2‘ and now, Mr. Charles in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ season 2, he gets to flex his range as an artist.
Read More: Where is Frank Castle AKA The Punisher? Why Did Jon Bernthal Leave Daredevil Born Again Season 2?
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