The first two seasons of Daredevil: Born Againhave focused on Matt’s ongoing beef with the Kingpin, who now runs New York. What seems at first like a legit play to go straight turns out to be a front: not only has FIsk assembled an anti-vigilante task force to take down costumed heroes, he’s also looking to turn Red Hook into its own city-state to profit from.
Even before the season finale featured power blackouts, riots in the streets, and cops claiming an unarmed kid they shot was a vigilante, it wasn’t hard to see parallels between the MCU’s New York and then-current state of affairs in the United States. That doesn’t seem like it’ll be changing with season two, and showrunner Dario Scardapane had no trouble admitting that what’s going on in the real world isn’t lost on him or others working on the show.
“There’s a few sequences we shot [last season] that could be off the news, and it’s weirding us all out,” he told SFX Magazine. Citing Stan Lee’s old adage about his comics reflecting the real world, Scardapane appreciates the “renewed political energy” of Born Again, but thinks too much of it can take away from the archetypes and near-mythological bent of the superhero genre. And based on what he’s saying, this season will end with Fisk off the board so season three can go in another direction.
“It was fun to play in the realm of politics, but I personally like something a little more street level,” Scardapane finished. “What we’re doing going forward, as the Mayor Fisk run comes to its inevitable conclusion, feels more like a return to the Frank Miller-era comics.” We’ll see what that looks like after Daredevil: Born Again returns with season two on March 24.
Season 1 did a Heat, will season 2 do an Irishman? Photo: Disney+/YouTube
Daredevil: Born Again was always set up to end in a cliffhanger. Good news, Disney decided to be kind and not leave you (and the residents of New York City) hanging. We already have confirmation from showrunner Dario Scardapene that we’re getting more Matt Murdock. Here’s everything we know about Daredevil: Born Again season 2.
The official trailer for season two isn’t public yet, but we can hear about it — basically, the Matt Murdock experience. Krysten Ritter surprised the crowd and confirmed her return as Jessica Jones. But she wasn’t the only surprise in the trailer. Elden Henson is back (?) as Foggy Nelson (??) even though he died in the season 1 premiere (???). We need an explanation. While we wait, we can watch Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin enter his boxing era as he’s seen fighting someone in a boxing ring.
Daredevil: Born Again season 1 ends with Kingpin and Mrs. Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio and Ayelet Zurer) ruling over New York City under flimsy fascist pretexts. Timely! But Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) is back. AS is Frank Castle, a.k.a. the Punisher, a.k.a. Medium Pun, r.i.p. Big Pun (Jon Bernthal). Together they’ll fight the police state and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) will take back the city.
According to Disney+’s official MCU timeline, Daredevil: Born Again is a part of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, and is the most recent piece of MCU material released. Does that mean New York will still be under martial law during Thunderbolts*? Unclear. We do know that a Punisher special coming to Disney+ soon, co-written by Bernthal and Reinaldo Marcus Green.
On Instagram, Scardapene let it be known that Daredevil: Born Again would come to Disney+ in March 2026. Just in time for Lent.
The first season of Daredevil: Born Againwas partially built off the bones of an old version. One idea which didn’t survive the changeover? Apparently, a one-off episode focused on the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Echo (Alaqua Cox).
In a recent interview with IGN, writer Jesse Wigutow—who wrote two of season one’s nine episodes—mentioned a “bottle episode” that was planned featuring Frank and Maya that he’d have written. When this was being concepted “two, three years ago,” the two antiheroes would’ve “shared an interesting night together. Not romantically, but narratively, said Wigutow. He conceded that it could resurface in Born Again’s future, but called its original development “crooked” and said might need a slight rework.
While Echo’s a more recent MCU addition and only had one run-in with Daredevil, her and Punisher hanging out could be fun. The closest thing Born Again had to a one-off was its bank heist halfway through the season, which seemed to be generally liked that season. If the show’s got the space for bottle episodes that can highlight its supporting street heroes who don’t have the time or space for a full spinoff of their own, this is a good way to work within the system.
As for Punisher, he’s got a solo special that’ll have him doing what he does best. That’s due sometime in 2026, presumably before Daredevil: Born Again returns for season two. And sometime after that, we’ll get more of Matt and whoever else in season three.
We’ve known since the start of the latest season that Matt Murdock would be the second hero joining the angelic Angela in Marvel Rivals‘ ever-growing roster. But now we know exactly when we can get our hands on him, as well as the game’s first Halloween celebration in style, which is bringing a little Marvel Zombies flavoring with it.
In a new update video released by NetEase today, the Rivals team confirmed that Daredevil—the latest damage-focused duelist added to Rivals‘ roster post-launch—will be joining the game on October 10 as part of the season 4.5 update. Little has been revealed about Daredevil’s toolkit in the game yet, but it was teased that he will be able to use his radar sense to pick out priority targets, as well as use his agility to perform gap closers before primarily fighting in melee range with his billy clubs.
Matty is the fifth duelist out of the 10 characters added to Marvel Rivals post-launch, so I and my fellow strategist mains can languish for a little while longer hoping that next season it’ll be our time to shine (imagine if they’d somehow made Daredevil a support character. Health-regenerating concussions from his clubs like he’s doing pressure point therapy?), but Daredevil isn’t the only fun addition coming to the game next month.
As well as a new game mode that will be revealed at the Thailand Game Show October 17, season 4.5 will also see Rivals‘ first Halloween-themed event, bringing with it a bevy of spooktacular skins.
Although most of the designs are original, like Peni Parker and Namor getting Day of the Dead-inspired skins and resident sharky menace Jeff being turned into an adorable pumpkin, at least two skins coming as part of the event are directly inspired by the recently released Marvel Zombies animated series. Both Scarlet Witch and Blade will receive Zombies skins, with Wanda being turned into her undead MCU look, while Blade will get a Moon Knight makeover to reflect his role as the avatar of Khonshu in the TV series.
It’s a perfectly timed turnaround for Rivals to get a bit of MCU synergy again, but it’ll be interesting to see what else the Rivals team is whipping up for their first chance to celebrate spooky season.
Marvel Rivals‘ latest update goes live on October 10.
Every year, Marvel and DC commemorate June with covers and stories centered around its stable of LGBTQIA+ characters. That tradition continues this year, but in Marvel’s case, it’s been deflating thanks to the messaging getting fumbled pretty badly.
io9 Interview: Oscar Isaac Was ‘All In’ on Moon Knight
On March 21 (Thursday), Marvel revealed its list of books coming out in June. Most of them are tied to its upcoming Blood Hunt event, and several comics—X-Men #35, Amazing Spider-Man #52, Immortal Thor #12, and others—have “Pride Allies” variant covers. The titling would have you think that Marvel was celebrating Pride Month by focusing solely on allies—aka, “the straights”—of its LGBTQIA+ cast, which went about as well on social media as you’d expect.
Flash-forward to March 22 (Friday), where Marvel put out an announcement about the Pride variants: specifically, the eight covers (four each drawn by artists Betsy Cola and Davi Go) will pair an LGBTQIA+ hero with a prominent straight character (with the former getting primary focus) to “showcase both the spirit of Pride Month and exemplifying the importance of strong allyship.” You can see one such cover by Go below, which sees Northstar share the spotlight with Spider-Man.
Image: Davi Go/Marvel Comics
On paper, there’s nothing wrong with this—DC’s doing the same thing with Batman and Nightwing, for instance, but these covers just have the standard “Pride” labeling. It also helps that DC got to control the narrative by revealing its Pride outputbefore the solicits rather than the other way around. What’s more, these covers are boosted by another annual Pride anthology celebrating its own stable of LGBTQIA+ characters, along with an one-shot honoring the late Doom Patrol writer Rachel Pollack, who gave the publisher its first trans hero in Coagula.
Supeheroes and queerness have always been linked together—it’s part of why Robin exists. You can (and fans often do!) read A-listers like Spider-Man, Daredevil, et al as queer, either by pulling from scenes in comics or other versions of them found in movies and games. Giving these heroes the “allies” label complicates things even further. What was probably an earnest attempt to celebrate a demographic of Marvel’s audience now has a weird air over it, made worse by the fact that it came straight from the source.
Marvel’s Pride Allies covers will run from June 5 to June 26.
Matt Murdock and the team at Nelson, Murdock, & Page are all coming back to us in Daredevil: Born Again. But are they here to stay or should we be worried about the Foggy Nelson and Karen Page of it all? Especially with the previous rumors about the show?
In new footage from the set of Born Again (via ComicBook.com), we see Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) coming towards Matt, Karen (Deborah Ann Woll), and Foggy (Elden Henson). What we can clearly see is Bullseye shooting a gun off in the direction of Josie’s Bar, which has someone sitting down in front of it, before Matt dressed in a new Daredevil look runs and tackles him. Does this mean we need to be worried about Karen Page and Foggy Nelson?
Fans are worried that Page was brought back just to be killed by Bullseye (a direct pull from the Daredevil comics) but the video we do get shows Daredevil and Bullseye brawling with each other. Whether that means that they brought back Karen and Foggy to just kill them off like was originally planed in the first Born Again series, we don’t know. And hopefully that’s not the case!
The Karen we got in the show is a very different take on the Karen Page from the comics. Her relationship with Frank Castle is new to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and her connection to Matt and Foggy is less like the comic origin. So will this be the moment from the comic they pull or does Bullseye miss for once?
Would they bring them back just to do what everyone was mad about?
(Disney+)
It is rumored that the original iteration of Daredevil: Born Again had both Foggy and Karen killed off-screen with Matt being blamed. Fans rightfully were angry at this news because we were promised a look into Nelson, Murdock, & Page at the end of season 3 of the show when it was on Netflix. What we’ve since learned from shooting images is that the crew is back together and we are getting the glimpse into the law firm that we hoped for.
But this new video does have a lot of people worried that the show is still planning on killing off at least one of Matt’s best friends.
Personally, I don’t want Karen or Foggy to die. It doesn’t make sense and Matt Murdock has been through enough during his time as Daredevil. He doesn’t need more drama added to his character arc. If they are intent on killing off Karen, there is going to be a lot to answer for when Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) hears about it and it’s just all going to be messy.
Until we know more, we will have to sit in fear of what this means for our beloved team of lawyers. For now, we can just look Matt’s new suit!
(Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
It’s so red and beautiful and it is fine that it does not have the “DD” logo on the chest, people on the internet.
(featured image: Jose Perez/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
The boys are here to give you their thoughts on the first event of Echo, along with their Midnight Meter rating of the full first season (13:030). Later, they try their hand at being in the big chair for a round of Armchair CEO to see what they would do with the new Daredevil TV show (70:20).
Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran
Daredevil: Born Again star Vincent D’Onofrio has said that he believes the upcoming Disney+ show will fall under the Marvel Spotlight Banner.
While on BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast, the actor was asked if he thought the new Daredevil series would be part of the Marvel Spotlight Banner. The purpose of the banner, which will include the upcoming Echo series, is to highlight more grounded stories that are focused on characters instead of the Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s overall continuity.
“For sure,” D’Onofrio stated. “That’s my opinion, I imagine it would be. Nobody has said, ‘Hey, did you know this? This is happening’ — nobody said that. But it is of the same tone and feel [as Echo]. The attention that the big bosses are giving to it is extraordinary and Charlie [Cox] and I are just amazed at how much they care about this series. I can’t imagine it being treated any less.”
In October, it was reported that Daredevil: Born Again was undergoing a “significant creative reboot” after the production break that came from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman were quietly taken off the project alongside the series’ directors, while certain scenes and episodes that were already finished will be retained with further serialized elements added.
When did Daredevil and Kingpin debut in the MCU?
Both Daredevil and Kingpin made their MCU debuts in 2021. Kingpin guest-starred in the Disney+ Hawkeye series, and Matt Murdock briefly appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Charlie Cox also guest-starred in two episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, where he showed off a lighter side of the hero.
Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, a 2003 PlayStation 2 superhero game that was in development by 5,000 Ft. Studios for the PlayStation 2 before getting canceled, has resurfaced after 20 years with a new playable build.
The game preservation group Hidden Palace managed to release a playable version of Daredevil: The Man Without Fear on October 31 via member Casuallynoted, who apparently obtained the build from an anonymous developer of 5,000 Ft. It’s a late prototype with a fair amount of bugs, including possible crashes after the first chapter and getting stuck behind walls. That said, it still features the bones of what 5,000 Ft. Studios and publisher Encore Inc. were working on in collaboration with Sony during the early aughts.
The brainchild of 5,000 Ft. Studios, a Nevada-based developer whose previous credits only included two Army Men ports from 2001, Daredevil: The Man Without Fear started out as a simple project before ballooning in scope. Originally known as Daredevil: The Video Game before adopting the same name as author Frank Miller’s 1993 comic, Daredevil was prototyped as a series of “vignettes” showcasing pivotal moments in the blind crimefighter’s history.
However, as the Lost Media Wiki explains, Marvel’s imminent Daredevil movie project led 5,000 Ft. to rework the concept into an open-world adventure, now also slated for the Xbox and PC. Tensions arose when Sony had very specific requests for new types of gameplay to add to the game, while Marvel wanted it to hew more closely to the upcoming Daredevil movie.
More trouble struck when the developers tried to adapt the then-popular RenderWare engine to the project’s changing needs. After running into serious issues there, they reduced the project’s scope from open-world adventure back to linear brawler. Problems continued as “internal strife” at the studio caused it to miss its February 2003 release. A new date was set for summer, but staff departures and continuing bickering between Sony and Marvel put the final nails in the Daredevil game’s coffin. 5,000 Ft. Studios itself closed in 2012.
Now, though, thanks to an anonymous developer reportedly connected to 5,000 Ft. Studios, a near-final build of the canceled PlayStation 2 game has been released onto the internet via the game preservation group Hidden Palace.
Hidden Palace
Although it wound up getting canceled due to creative differences between Marvel and Sony, based on the video it looks pretty tight. It recalls early-aughts 3D superhero gems such as The Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man,with a bit of Tomb Raider mixed in, too.
The game apparently tells an original story based on the 1999 Elektra Lives Again comic and starring Daredevil’s arch-enemy The Kingpin. It’s a shame, then, that it was canceled just before completion. As The Hidden Palace notes, only the Game Boy Advance ever ended up getting a Daredevil game. The much less ambitious Daredevil: The Man Without Fear for Game Boy Advance arrived just in time for the Mark Steven Johnson-directed live-action film.
As Hidden Palace reports, the newly released build of Daredevil: The Man Without Fear is playable, but with several bugs and game-breaking glitches since it’s unfinished. It’s nice that this finally snuck out 20 years later, though still a bummer the project never got to live up to its potential. With the success of Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Spider-Man series, and the Wolverine game on the horizon, maybe Daredevil will get another shot at video game redemption.
Daredevil (Charlie Cox) is officially coming back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in the upcoming Disney+ series, Daredevil: Born Again. Cox first starred as a Matt Murdock (a.k.a. Daredevil) in the Netflix series, Daredevil, which ran for 3 seasons before it was canceled. After Netflix’s Defenders series all ceased, some feared we’d never see Cox as Daredevil again. However, the MCU made the decision to integrate a few of the Netflix characters and stars into their universe.
Vincent D’Onofrio was the first Daredevil star to show up in the MCU, reprising his role as Kingpin in Hawkeye. Shortly after, Cox had a small cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home as Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) lawyer. These were just small teases, but since then, the MCU has made it clear that Cox and D’Onofrio are in the MCU to stay. Cox will be appearing She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, while both Cox and D’Onofrio are appearing in the Disney+ series, Echo.
Not only that, but at the 2022 San Diego Comic Con, Cox was confirmed to be getting his own series, Daredevil: Born Again. Reportedly, the show will not be a continuation of Netflix’s Daredevil. The series is a reboot of Daredevil, but it will be a direct continuation of Echo. So far, Cox and D’Onofrio are the only two confirmed to be appearing in the series. However, many fans are still holding out hope that Daredevil: Born Again will reintroduce other Defenders‘ characters, such as Daredevil fan-favorite The Punisher (Jon Bernthal).
Is The Punisher in Daredevil: Born Again?
As reported by Dexerto.com in September, Bernthal’s The Punisher is rumored to be returning in Daredevil: Born Again. The rumors have been facilitated by podcaster, Tom Smith, via Twitter. Smith explained that initial rumors suggested Krysten Ritter would be returning to the MCU in some capacity as Jessica Jones. Many assumed that she was supposed to have a role in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. However, Smith confirmed with Charles Murphy, a Marvel insider, that Ritter was never considered for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Instead, it was Daredevil: Born Again that she was being looked at for. According to Smith, those plans fell through because of scheduling conflicts. This means that the MCU was reportedly looking for someone to fill the spot previously reserved for Ritter and that they are choosing Bernthal to do so. Check out Smith’s Tweets below:
Basically Born Again is re-introducing the Netflix characters to the mainstream and they planned to bring in Ritter but there’s a scheduling problem for Born Again. So they needed another Netflix star to fill the role. It’s Jon Bernthal. Wouldn’t be shocked if Ritter cameos tho https://t.co/7OKGnij13Zpic.twitter.com/u2oJnKbmS4
So far, Marvel has not officially confirmed that The Punisher is returning to the MCU. Bernthal portrayed The Punisher for season 2 of Daredevil and later received his solo series, The Punisher. This isn’t the first time that Bernthal has been rumored to be returning, after Rosario Dawson seemingly confirmed his return, before refuting her statement. Bernthal offered one of the most iconic portrayals of The Punisher, and, if the MCU really is trying to bring some of Netflix’s Marvel characters over to their universe, he would likely be one of their top candidates.
Actor adds to Bernthal return rumors
On November 4, 2022, a post from an unknown actor sparked speculation once more about Bernthal’s return as The Punisher. Kasey O’Keefe posted a picture on Instagram of him posing next to Bernthal. O’Keefe started the post by giving praise to Bernthal. However, in his conclusion, he wrote, “Looking forward to working with you during Marvel Phase 5!!”
O’Keefe also added #punisher to the tags in his post. The post seemingly confirmed Bernthal’s return as The Punisher. However, there isn’t much to support O’Keefe’s claims. First of all, he is a relative newcomer to the film industry, boasting only one credit to his name on IMDb. There’s no evidence that he has been cast in the MCU, making it odd that he claimed he would be working with Bernthal in Marvel Phase 5.
It should also be noted that his Instagram includes many photos of himself posing with various celebrities and expressing his wishes to work with them in the future. Hence, his post shouldn’t be taken as an official confirmation of Bernthal’s return. While there isn’t much evidence to support O’Keefe’s claims, it has once more renewed talk about Bernthal’s potential MCU debut.
