Are you ready for the real bone-crunching action of Disney+’s MCU TV shows to begin? The lead up to Daredevil: Born Again has given every indication that Netflix‘s former The Defenders saga series will not be watered down after their move from Netflix. Surely, this is part of the plan to reinvigorate excitement for Marvel Studios projects after last year’s Daredevil & Wolverine brought R-rated charisma to Kevin Feige’s realm, and now, Matt Murdock is bringing the TV-MA flavor to the series side of the equation.
Not that Daredevil: Born Again is guaranteed to be a slam dunk. Feige previously conceded that the MCU oversaturated its audience with a pace that fatigued viewers. More casual superhero watchers were certainly turned off by “homework,” but if anybody can jump-start the MCU’s TV side, it’s Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, whose fight-scene cameo was the most memorable moment of last year’s Echo miniseries. Now the spotlight is back on Daredevil and his frenemies, so let’s punch through the clutter on what to expect.
Plot
As viewers know, Netflix’s Daredevil ran for three seasons (ending in 2018) and was part of the overall The Defenders saga that included Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist with The Punisher doing his own thing, still inside of the streaming service’s MCU box.
Disney+ has been streaming these shows for a few years as of 2022 with the expectation that some would relaunch. Daredevil turned into top priority of the group and surfaced in that Echo cameo, but production did take longer than expected due to the aforementioned MCU hiccups, which led to rewrites and reshoots (a report revealed that the scrapped version didn’t even include Charlie Cox “in costume until the fourth episode”) to make Hornhead’s return as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen worth it, and recently (via Bleeding Cool) at FAN EXPO San Francisco, Cox revealed how thrilled he was to finally be back in costume after “so so many years since we released any Daredevil content.” He even added, “By the time we release [“Born Again”] on March 4th, we’ll already be shooting season 2.” Hmm.
For the first season, it’s important to note that Marvel Studios declared that Netflix’s Daredevil series is officially canon, and oh look, Frank Castle/The Punisher has been teased plenty and was photographed on the NYC set.
More recently, Disney+ released a trailer that stressed Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin transitioning from crime-lording to political leadership. This trailer emphasized the push-pull between Murdock and Fisk along with acknowledging how much time has passed and questioning why Murdock left the vigilante life. It’s vaguey-vague-vague stuff, but Marvel Studios streaming chief Brad Winderbaum previously promised Entertainment Weekly that this series will contain “some of the most brutal action we’ve ever brought to the screen is coming in Daredevil: Born Again.”
Showrunner Dario Scardapane (a writer for Netflix’s The Punisher) agrees and told Empire, “The level of violence is way up there for a Marvel/Disney show.” He added, “I don’t think there’s anything else even in the ballpark. There’s a moment in this that is just absolutely batshit, and way past anything Netflix ever did.” D’Onofrio went further, declaring that while “[t]here’s a world in which you might think that if that show kept running, we’d be in this place eventually, or something like it,” this show goes even further than for those who expected something extreme: “But we’ve gone further in the darkness, the action, the nastiness.”
The trio isn’t messing around, as the below trailer reveals, and the emphasis here is on the action with the “why” remaining mysterious.
Can we expect more characters from Netflix’s MCU shows to relaunch in other standalone series? Winderbaum has expressed interest in bringing Jessica Jones back, and Krysten Ritter is entirely down: “C’mon Brad. Let’s get it going. Let’s do it. I’ll be ready.” Bring those scarfs back, too.
Cast
Charlie Cox is finally back as Matt Murdock/Daredevil again, and Jon Bernthal’s appearance as Frank Castle/The Punisher was a highlight of early reveals on this series. As the show has grown closer, though, Vincent D’Onofrio’s return as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin has loomed large, and the first season will also feature Wilson Bethel as as Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye with more comebacks including Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page and Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson.
Additionally, Margarita Levieva, Nikki M. James, Sandrine Holt, Arty Froushan, and Michael Gandolfini will appear.
Release Date
The reunion begins on March 4. Disney+ has kindly ceased the old ways of dropping episodes in the dead of night, so you can look forward to Daredevil: Born Again at a reasonable hour, 6:00pm PT/9:00pm ET.
Trailer
Since we already included the official trailer, here’s a replay of Echo‘s Daredevil fight:
