The death of Deputy Mayor Daniel Blake in Daredevil: Born Again was not filmed the way it aired. The fatal gunshot that kills Blake in the penultimate episode of Season 2 was added in post-production using CGI, showrunner Dario Scardapane told Variety.
What was originally filmed
During production, the confrontation between Kingpin’s enforcer Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan) and Blake (Michael Gandolfini) played out differently. Cashman pointed his gun at Blake but did not pull the trigger. He let Blake walk away and later lied to Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) about the outcome.
“Buck had to face up to Fisk, but he doesn’t admit it,” Froushan told Variety. “He lies to Fisk’s face, basically, and says, ‘I killed him,’ but obviously he doesn’t.”
Had Blake survived, Scardapane said the character would have stayed inside the Fisk administration. Blake attempts to resign, but the new interim mayor refuses to accept it. “I’m not taking your resignation. I’m going to keep you close because I don’t trust you,” Scardapane recalled of the intended scene.
How Daredevil Born Again changed Daniel Blake’s fate
The decision to kill Blake came in the editing room after Scardapane reviewed the footage and found the surviving version unsatisfying. He described it as “kind of meh and a non-story,” and said the character had been given too many reprieves already.
“This feels so wrong,” Scardapane recalled thinking. The post-production team assembled a version of the scene with a gunshot added and screened it for the group. “In the editing room, we’re like, ‘We should try this,'” he said. “They mocked it up really fast, and you could have heard a pin drop in the editing room after that.”
Scardapane explained the decision through the lens of what the relationship between Cashman and Blake required of the story. “He and Buck, in their twisted friendship, both had to be true to who they were,” he said. “That’s the last moment because everything afterwards seemed kind of like a weird, lame coda that didn’t pay off.”
Michael Gandolfini’s reaction
Scardapane called Gandolfini before the change was finalized. “I was like, ‘Dude, I’ve got the worst news,'” he said. Gandolfini took it in stride: “He’s like, ‘I know exactly what you’re gonna say, and it’s the right choice.'”
The showrunner said footage of Blake shot after the confrontation made the problem obvious in the edit. “We knew this character probably should not survive but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it,” Scardapane said.
Froushan said not knowing about the change gave the scene a different quality on screen. “The fact that, as actors, we didn’t know that was gonna happen makes the scene maybe even more compelling,” he told Variety. “I love Michael Gandolfini like a brother. This season, the whole journey we have together is a movie. So I was gutted.”
Blake’s death is the second major Season 1 character killed off in Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again, with the season finale still ahead.