How 'Daredevil: Born Again' Crafted That Sleek Black Suit

Matt Murdock has worn enough iconic Daredevil suits to fill an entire closet — but Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 might be his best look yet. 

The second season of the Marvel Television series finds Matt (Charlie Cox) lurking in the shadows, stealthily moving through New York City as he tries to fight back against Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) and his oppressive Anti-Vigilante Task Force. To help stay under the radar, he’s painted his familiar red suit black, and the result is a sleek, stealthy new uniform, complete with a red “DD” logo emblazoned on his chest. 

Showrunner Dario Scardapane wanted the season to begin with a new look for Matt, one that would help him hide in plain sight as he tried to stay one step ahead of Fisk. Crafting the new suit fell to returning costume designer Emily Gunshor, who drew inspiration from some of Matt’s iconic all-black looks in the comics. 

It was Gunshor who suggested the costume’s most striking detail: As the season goes on, the black paint starts to peel and uncover the crimson red underneath — literally revealing Matt’s inner devil.  

“For me, it was really exciting to think about how if he spray painted it black over time and he’s fighting, is he touching it up?” Gunshor explains. “Or can we lean into this grounded practical element, where the red starts to peel off?” 

On screen, the black paint job looks like an easy DIY, something Matt could execute by himself with a can of spray paint. But in reality, Gunshor and the Daredevil: Born Again team had to painstakingly craft an all-new look, one they could weather properly throughout the season. “Everybody’s like, ‘Well, we have this red suit. Can’t you just paint it black?’” she says with a laugh. “No, we can’t paint it black! We’ve got to start over.” 

That also meant finding the perfect shade of black, one that would contrast with the red and deliver the perfect sheen in the light. It had to be dark enough to help Matt hide in the shadows but striking enough to show up on viewers’ TV screens.

“We shoot a lot of stuff at night,” Gunshor explains. “Our DP Hillary Spera and I talked about what was going to reflect and read well in the lighting. We know this is a dark, shadowy world.” 

Gunshor and her team crafted two main suits — one for the first half of the season, where the paint job is still fresh, and one for the latter half, when it’s really beginning to peel. The turning point is the charity boxing match in Episode 4, where Matt smashes through a glass window and escapes with Bullseye (Wilson Bethel). “That’s where we subtly started to switch into the second suit,” she explains. 

The costume team also worked closely with supervising stunt coordinator and second unit director Philip J. Silvera to make sure the peeling paint matched up with the action on screen — like in Episode 5, when Matt drags an injured Bullseye through the streets of New York. “I was able to talk to Phil and say, ‘The red is going to be on this side,’” Gunshor says. “‘Can you conveniently try and lean him up to the wall as you drag, so we can develop that further?’” 

Of course, Gunshor’s job isn’t just to craft a suit that looks good on screen. It also has to be flexible enough for Cox and the stunt team to run, jump, and fight in. “These suits are really uncomfortable, and there’s lots of restriction in certain places,” she says. “Charlie at this point is a true life hero because he’s very accustomed to getting that suit on.”

The fabric of each suit is a type of 3D-printed spandex, which gives it that armored look while still allowing for some flexibility. The helmet’s dark red eye lenses also limit visibility, so Gunshor and her team have to be able to swap out different versions as needed. There’s the traditional red lens used for close-ups, as well as a clear version that reflects the light on camera but can be digitally painted red by the visual effects team later. And sometimes, the lenses have to be popped out entirely for the stunt team’s safety.  

But even with all that prep, Gunshor and her team never know what the stunt team may throw at them. Sometimes they’re tasked with cutting a hole in the suit to allow for a harness, so Cox or a stuntman can fly through the air on a wire. Other times the suit has to be modified to allow for a complicated fight move. Gunshor remembers prepping for Born Again Season 1 by doing weeks of careful fittings and rigorous testing — only to get called to set on the first day of filming, when a stunt performer had to somersault through a window. Because of the rigidity of the chest plate, the performer literally couldn’t bend to complete the flip.

“We had a stuntman in the fitting room, and we tried all sorts of action and flips, but we never tried a somersault,” Gunshor says, shaking her head. So, she and her team had to make modifications on the fly, carefully cutting a slice in the chest plate to allow the suit to bend, before patching it up at the end of the day’s shooting.  

Season 2 also brought new and unexpected challenges. In the very first episode, Matt infiltrates the ship the Northern Star, and as it sinks, he winds up in the East River. When the writers and producers first met with Gunshor to discuss the season, one of their very first questions was, “How does the suit fare in water?” 

“I really had very little idea of what was going to happen when we put it in water,” she admits. “I mean, I’d tested the fabric, but I was hesitant to put the actual suit in water because if it falls apart, then I’ve just ruined it. So, we were going to test it on the day and just see what happens.” 

Luckily, Gunshor’s craftmanship held, even against the elements. 

“After the East River, we had to clean it up and touch up some paint in places and change out some of the fabric that had been deteriorated,” she says. “Because you can’t really put it through the washing machine!”

Marvel Television’s Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+.