Exclusive Interview
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Writer Talks Kastle’s ‘Cosmic’ Connection & Teases Season 2 Love Triangle
Daredevil: Born Again‘s Season 1 finale revealed that Kastle, the onscreen dynamic between Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), is far from over as we look ahead to Season 2.
But just because the will-they-won’t-they pair met with racing heartbeats only Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) could decipher, doesn’t mean it’s a clear path to happily ever after, at least according to series writer and executive producer Dario Scardapane. For those less acquainted with Scardapane’s name, he also worked on the previous Netflix iteration of The Punisher (now streaming on Disney+) with Bernthal and Woll, meaning he’s no stranger to the Kastle relationship.
As viewers will recall in Daredevil: Born Again‘s Season 1 finale, Karen called on Frank to help get Matt out of trouble when Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) sent his task force after the vigilante. When they escaped, Karen whisked them away to Frank’s place, where they fixed up wounds and prepared for their next fight ahead, with Karen and Matt opting to go after Fisk and Frank later deciding to attack the mayor’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF).
Marvel Television / Disney+
“In the basement, when they’re in Frank’s lair and he looks at her and says, ‘You asked me to do you a favor, and I did.’ Oh, you can’t ask for more,” Scardapane muses. “So, having worked on The Punisher, in that show, there were a lot of unrequited feelings between those two characters, and I got Jon, Charlie, and Deb all in this scene together. It’s like, you’re going to let it rip. You’re going to do everything you can with that,” Scardapane says of setting the Kastle stage in Daredevil: Born Again‘s finale.
According to the showrunner, he’d been working on more Kastle storylines when Season 3 of The Punisher had been in the works prior to Netflix canceling the series altogether. “So to get a chance to get back together with Jon and Deb and these characters, it was great. I know it sounds silly, and it’s an overused phrase, but it felt like you were getting the band back together. You come to work, and it’s seven years later, and you’ve got the same people. It was so fun.”
It was clear in the finale episode of Daredevil: Born Again that Matt was aware of Frank’s feelings for Karen by having the ability to hear his heartbeats — and Karen’s as well. While Frank and Karen didn’t act on their unspoken feelings, Matt later mentioned the heartbeat situation to Karen, where she wondered aloud if he was jealous of Frank.
Giovanni Rufino / Marvel Television
So, what does this mean for the trio’s dynamic going forward? Scardapane teases, “For Season 2, in terms of Frank, Karen, and Matt, for lack of a better word [is going to be a] triangle.”
“We were there when it started and came about in The Punisher. The writers’ room for The Punisher was always like, ‘How far do we twist the dial on this?'” Scardapane recalls of the love triangle potential. While Frank and Karen have never been an official couple, Karen and Matt were once upon a time. “There is a scene in the elevator between Karen and Frank that was the subject of massive amounts of debate,” he notes, referring to a moment from The Punisher‘s first season (above). “How close are they going to get? What’s going to happen in there? I think it was shot two different ways,” Scardapane reveals.
“There were huge debates, and it’s just kind of a great thing to have where there’s roiling feelings about these three people, and none of it’s been resolved yet,” he adds. “And I don’t know if it ever gets resolved. For the fan in me, I firmly believe that Matt Murdock and Karen Page are that one pure love. But then at the same time, I firmly believe that Frank’s brokenness… that he and Karen understand each other at a level that’s cosmic.”
In other words, it’s a scale that will continue to teeter back and forth as we head into the next chapter. “They’re fun to play with. Do they ever get resolved? I don’t know. I’m working on that right now,” Scardapane teases.
What do you hope to see from the Frank-Karen-Matt love triangle? Stay tuned for updates as we look ahead to Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again, and let us know what you thought of the show’s Kastle moments so far.
Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2 Premiere, TBA, Disney+
