Daredevil: Born Again All But Confirms the MCU’s Kingpin Replacement (& It’s Much Needed)

April 25, 2026, 2:00pm

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is coming down the back half, and some key characters are getting moved into some frightening new positions. While the main action is focused on Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) battling Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), there are several characters being affected by the conflict who are slowly but surely changing into something else. In Episode 6, “Requiem”, several supporting characters get sucked into the darkness of Vanessa Fisk’s (Ayelet Zurer) death. And for one of those characters, there was a distinct ‘point of no return’ turn that could foreshadow the rise of a new Kingpin of Crime.

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And after the run that Vincent D’Onofrio has had playing Kingpin, a little new blood would be welcome. So to speak.

Is Daredevil: Born Again Setting Up A New Kingpin of Crime For the MCU?

Michael Gandolfini has been impressing a lot of fans with his performance as Daniel Blake, a young twenty-something kid who landed a spot in Wilson Fisk’s inner circle. At first, Blake was naive and even foolish; by the back half of Season 2, he’s already burying a body alongside Wilson Fisk’s enforcer, Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan), and having to make life-or-death decisions about his friend, BB Urich (Genneya Walton). Daniel is clearly capable of some dark things, a darkness that both Fisk and Buck have recognized him previously, with Buck even remarking to Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) that Daniel could be the “Heir unapparent” to the Kingpin.

But is this arc for Daniel really headed for something as big as being the Kingpin’s successor? There’s a moment in Episode 6 that suggests it very well could be. At 17:30, there’s a shot of Daniel sitting and contemplating his next move. Buck has given him specific instructions to use his birthday dinner at his mom’s house, where BB will be in attendance, to set the young reporter up and see if she’s the one leading the media campaign against Kingpin. Daniel is weighing the decision and what it will mean for him if he serves BB to the sharks; the next scene is a jump cut to Wilson Fisk seated in the back of his car, contemplating matters in almost the same pose as Daniel. The edit seems to be a clear foreshadowing that eventually, Daniel is going to be making dark decisions like this regularly as a crime boss – BB may just be the first real act of corrupting his soul. After all, Daniel ultimately does weed out BB’s secret (in his mother’s house, no less), and it’s left up in the air whether he will sell her out to Buck and complete his fall to darkness.

Marvel Comics Have Already Set Precedence For Kingpin’s Successor

In the late 2010s, Marvel Comics introduced Byron “Butch” Pharris, a kid who grew up with “Mike Murdock,” a “twin” of Matt Murdock who had been mystically conjured to life. Butch went into a life of crime, first working for Daredevil’s crimelord foe, the Owl, before becoming his own crime boss of Hell’s Kitchen. Butch believes himself to be Wilson Fisk’s illegitimate son, and eventually changed his name to “Butch Fisk.” When Butch freed Wilson from prison after the collapse of his reign as mayor, Wilson formally anointed him as the next Kingpin and his successor, and left NYC, with Butch running the underworld.

As stated, there are already hints that Daredevil: Born Again is taking “Daniel Blake’s” arc in a similar direction as Butch Pharris’s story. Those indicators include some spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 that have already made their way online. Michael Gandolfini has gotten a lot of praise for his slow-burning turn of taking Daniel for a young “bro” trying to climb the ladder of power, to being the unlikely one who seizes that power if and when Kingpin is forced to relinquish it.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is streaming on Disney+. Discuss the latest issue with us on the ComicBook Forum!