Created and written by showrunner Peter McKenna (The Last Kingdom, Red Rock), the eight-episode drama series Kin, which is available to stream at AMC+, follows the Kinsella family and their criminal enterprise. After one of the family crosses the line with a cartel, it puts all of them and their business at risk, until they realize that the bigger threat might come from the secrets they’re keeping from each other.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Charlie Cox (who plays Michael Kinsella, the heir who’s been released from prison) talked about why he chose this project as the first TV series he’s done since the end of Daredevil, how much he identifies with his character, the father-daughter relationship at the center of his story, this complicated family dynamic, his hope for a second season, and what he’s looking for now in a project.

Collider: This is the first TV series you’ve done since the end of Daredevil. When you do a show like that, where a character is so identifiable with you, does it make you think even harder about what to take next? Does it change how you look at projects after that?

CHARLIE COX: Yeah, it does. It was an old time. There were a lot of factors that were playing into the decisions that all of us were making, at the time. I read this sometime in April or May of 2020. It had been a couple of years since we finished Daredevil and we were now in lockdown, and I read this show and I was so touched and moved by it, and found it so painful and interesting. It’s a smaller show. It takes place in Dublin. There was a lot about it that I was excited about. I just thought the writing was so strong and the relationships were so interesting that it felt different enough and interesting enough that it was the right next move for me.

With something like this, when you read it and you see how heavy it is and how intense the material is, do you immediately wonder if you want to put myself in that kind of headspace? Does that factor in at all?

COX: Yes, but I love that and I get excited by that. I’m not someone who typically works all the time. I’m quite good at taking breaks and finding moments to decompress and be with the family, and that kind of stuff. So, when something presents itself that I respond to, I’m normally pretty excited about getting into that headspace and exploring it and living with those feelings a little bit, rather than it becoming a burden and being something that I have to do.

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Image via AMC

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At the same time, when you finish something like this, do you have to make more of an effort to leave a character like this behind, or is it pretty easy to just be done with him and that’s it? Do you compartmentalize it?

COX: That’s interesting question. When you finish shooting something, you don’t know if you’re leaving him behind or not yet because it takes awhile for the powers that be to decide if they’re gonna do it again or not. Right now, Michael, the character I played in Kin, is still very much alive in my imagination, albeit in the back of my mind, in the hope that we will get to do a second season, at some point. And then, if you find out that’s not gonna happen, it’s disappointing, but it’s also been a long enough time now that I’d probably handle it pretty well.

When you did this, did you talk about possibilities of what a second season could be, or were the conversations just focused on the season you were shooting?

COX: Not with me. I don’t tend to get involved in what the future could hold, partly because I don’t wanna get my hopes up. I know that with most TV shows, they have some sort of an outline or idea of what a second and third season would look like. I’d be fascinated to hear what those conversations are like, but until we know that we have the green light and we can go ahead and do a second season, I’d rather just see it as one thing and hope people enjoy it for what it is. I’ll allow the audiences and the networks to decide if it warrants more screen time.

Going into this, what did you think of this character? Was he someone that you felt for? Was he someone you could understand? Was he someone you had to spend some time trying to figure out?

COX: I was amazed at how much I identified, as an audience member and as a reader, and felt for someone who clearly is not a particularly good guy. That was an interesting challenge for me. Michael, despite his past, has been so humbled by life. He’s so vulnerable, at the beginning, and he’s so delicate that you can’t help but root for him and hope that he succeeds. I just found that to be an interesting paradox. The truth is, what he’s capable of is quite intense violence and destruction, and yet we can’t help but like him.

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Image via AMC

When you play a character like this, who is so often restrained and internal, and he doesn’t necessarily share his emotions a lot, was he always like that on the page? Did you talk about paring down some of that, or is this a guy that just doesn’t over share?

COX: That was pretty much all on the page, from the get-go. Peter [McKenna]’s scripts were immaculate, very early on. In my conversations with Peter, which we did have, we talked about things and there were a few tweaks that we made, as the season progressed. But for the most part, I was very clear with what Peter was writing. Michael is surrounded by quite bold characters and that makes Michael all the more interesting. He draws you in because he isn’t saying as much and he doesn’t seem as emotionally involved, except of course when his daughter is involved, and then suddenly you see how much he cares.

What was it like to have that father-daughter relationship at the center of this?

COX: That was really fun to explore. It’s the first time I’ve been given the opportunity to play a father and I am one, so it was nice to bring my experiences of that to the screen. The idea of being close to your child, and then being separated from them, is about as painful and traumatic as I can imagine. Even though it’s easy to think of these people as not quite the same as us because of the life that they lead and the criminal activity they engage in, I’m not sure that’s true. These people feel that same sense of family bond and ties, and having that taken from you is equally as traumatic and painful. I say it was fun, but fun is not quite the right word because it was painful. But that was a really interesting avenue to explore.

How do you view the dynamic of this family? Do you think that the way people look at from the outside is very different from the way they see themselves?

COX: Yes, absolutely. I think that, if you grew up in that world and you grew up in a family like this, it would be easy to just carry on as normal because that’s all you’ve ever known. “That’s just what we do. This is what our family does. This is how we live.” And then, if someone like Michael is given a long enough break from that, where he’s able to see it from the outside and suddenly starts questioning everything, that certainly adds an interesting layer to his personality. Then, he can see it as a choice rather than a lifestyle that he was born into.

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Image via AMC

Do you think he has regrets? Do you think he wishes he had chosen a different path, at any point?

COX: Yeah, I do. I think that he has moments where he would give anything to have chosen a different path. It’s particularly difficult for him now because it’s too late. Even if he tries and makes a real effort to change his past, the damage has already been done, in many ways. He doesn’t really have much of a hope of building a real life that he can sustain himself, financially. There are options to him that are really closed. So, I think there are huge regrets there.

What was it like to dig into the relationship between Michael and Amanda (Clare Dunne) and explore their very complex dynamic?

COX: That was really interesting. That was some of my favorite stuff to do. Jimmy is Michael’s brother, so imagine being his wife. Clearly, there’s a very complicated threesome going on there. I think all three of them love each other, very, very much. In the past, Michael and Amanda probably crossed the line, and that’s caused great hurt and pain. They want, more than anything, for their relationship and their love to remain on good terms and amicable, but deep down, Amanda and Michael have a kinship that Jimmy is jealous of.

There’s such an interesting feeling when you watch this because it feels like everything has this undercurrent of violence and danger to it, and you’re always waiting for something to happen, which feels like it bleeds into everything this family does.

COX: Yeah, and that’s what makes it quite exciting because it raises the stakes. In normal family dynamics, what you risk is the disillusion of the family dynamic and the fracturing of people who love each other. In this particular family, there are other options that are available to them. If you reach a certain level of resentment and rage, making someone pay the ultimate price is not that many steps away, as it would be from a normal family.

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Image via AMC

While you’re waiting to find out whether or not you get to return to this character, do you know what you’re going to be doing in the meantime? Is it harder to figure out what the next thing is while you’re working during a pandemic?

COX: Yeah, it continues to be an interesting period. If I’m to take a job that takes me away from my family, it’s gonna have to be something really, really spectacular because it’s just so much more difficult to travel internationally, particularly. So, it just takes more consideration. You have to have a little bit more faith that the right thing will come about and be grateful that something like Kin gave me work for a few months, and now I can take some time to wait for the next right thing. It’s complicated. I don’t have any plans, at the moment. We’ll have to see.

Is there a genre that you still feel like you haven’t gotten to do, or do you look for anything specific?

COX: I don’t look for things. I don’t really align myself with any particular genre. I read a script and I find that I’m not fussed about plot. I’m not that interested in what happens. I’m very interested in how the characters handle the feelings that they have and how they treat each other. When I read the dialogue, does it feels nuanced and interesting and human? I don’t go out seeking something that is very specific. It’s more a question of reading stuff I get sent and just seeing if it makes me feel something that makes me wanna explore it even more.

That makes sense, especially for something like Daredevil because that felt like the least superhero-like superhero. He just seemed so real and grounded, as does your character in Kin.

COX: Yeah, I certainly felt that way with Daredevil when I read it. I didn’t really grow up reading comics, so I wasn’t lured by the opportunity to play a superior necessarily, but when I read the script, I found the idea of playing a superhero who has such flaws and lives with such guilt and pain to be a really interesting paradox. But it really was the quality of the writing and the characters that drew me towards that rather than the superhero element.

Kin is available to stream at AMC+.