Elden Henson Cast As Foggy Nelson In Daredevil

Netflix’s Daredevil cast has been growing ever since the announcement of Charlie Cox in the titular role.  The latest addition is Elden Henson as Matt Murdock’s good-natured and loyal best friend, Franklin P. “Foggy” Nelson.  This news follows the announcements of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin, and Rosario Dawson in an unspecified role.

Elden Henson has been acting in television and movies since 1984 and he’s best known for playing Fulton Reed, a hockey slap-shot specialist, in the Mighty Ducks trilogy (credited as Elden Ratcliff).  His other popular credits have included She’s All That, Cast Away, The Butterfly Effect, Psych, and Grey’s Anatomy.  Henson can next be seen in both parts of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay movies based on the final book of the bestselling Hunger Games trilogy.

This will only be the second live-action incarnation of Foggy.  In 1989’s television movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, only a colleague is shown as sharing an office with Matt Murdock.  The name of the colleague is never revealed.  In 2003’s Daredevil, Foggy was portrayed by Jon Favreau.

The character of Foggy Nelson has certainly changed throughout the years.  Though the role of loyal best friend to Matt Murdock has never morphed, the character’s drive and ambition have.  In the beginning, Foggy was given the personality of a highly successful attorney with conflicted feelings of inferiority to his colleague.  Later, he was transformed into a short, pudgy character with a very laid-back average Joe mentality used as comic relief for the sometimes grim and dark Daredevil stories.

Daredevil will be one of four Marvel/Netflix shows centered around events taking place in Hell’s Kitchen.  The other three will be Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones.  Like the cinematic universe, all four characters from each show will later converge together in a miniseries event called The Defenders — another superhero team akin to The Avengers.