Daredevil: Born Again: Lillard on Mr. Charles' "Chesire Cat" Energy

Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, Movies, TV | Tagged: daredevil, daredevil: born again

Daredevil: Born Again: Lillard on Mr. Charles' "Chesire Cat" Energy

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 star Matthew Lillard discusses Mr. Charles and how his D&D GM improv skills helped lead to the role.

Published Wed, 18 Mar 2026 20:37:08 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• Matthew Lillard joins Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 as the enigmatic Mr. Charles with "Cheshire Cat" vibes
• Lillard credits his Dungeons & Dragons improv experience for shaping his unique Marvel character
• Mr. Charles is a global power broker, unfazed by Kingpin and uninterested in local politics
• Season 2 sees Matt Murdock and allies hiding as Kingpin's anti-vigilante task force seizes control of NYC

With Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk/Kingpin decisively winning round one of Daredevil: Born Again, our hero, in Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock/Daredevil and company, are forced to go into hiding as Mayor Fisk's anti-vigilante task force operates without impunity. New York City is placed under a curfew and martial law at the end of season one, and the parties are back into their respective corners with some new faces in the fold. Joining Matt and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), with Frank Castle/Punisher (Jon Bernthal) away trying to go solo against Fisk, is Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) trying to even the odds while joining Wilson and Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) is the mysterious Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard), as someone they have to meet in an international stage. The Scream VII and Cross star spoke to Entertainment Weekly to shed some additional light on the character with the Lewis Caroll vibes.

Daredevil: Born Again Star Matthew Lillard on How He Got Cast as Mr. Charles and Chess Match Psychology with Kingpin

"I am the Dungeon Master for all these incredibly powerful showrunners in Hollywood," Lillard said on the Dungeons & Dragons group he runs, having Burn Notice and Baywatch reboot creator Matt Nix, Tracker creator Elwood Reid, actor Abe Benrubi (ER), and DDBA showrunner Dario Scardapane. "It's hilarious because they are not used to having somebody tell them the story or shape the story for them. So it's been a very interesting journey as we run Curse of Strahd [campaign] for the last three years."

When asked if it led to his casting, Lillard played coy, saying, "Kinda." As far as how it relates to his MCU character, "They would allow me to improv stuff and bring idiosyncratic beats to it, and the more that we worked together, the more they trusted me. The more they trusted me, the more I got to play. I think that's what Dario was hoping I would bring to Mr. Charles."

Lillard described the character as "somebody who bends the ear of very powerful people around the world. So he's not really interested in Gotham (New York) politics. He's interested in world politics. So when he is dealing and trifling with someone like Kingpin, he's not that impressed. That's all I can say, you know? There's this Cheshire Cat sort of energy about him." For more on why Lillard feels Mr. Charles fits in that world, comments from Marvel TV's Brad Winderbaum on Fisk's new reality on the world's stage, and more, you can check out the full interview. Season two of Daredevil: Born Again, which also stars Margarita Levieva, Elden Henson, Wilson Bethel, Zabryna Guevara, Clark Johnson, Nikki M. James, Arty Froushan, Michael Gandofini, and Tony Dalton, premieres March 24th on Disney+.

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