After Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel Must Bring the Other Defenders Back

Daredevil: Born Again is bringing the The Man Without Fear back into the center of his own series, and the way the show is being structured, among other developments, makes the return of Daredevil’s fellow Defenders from the Marvel-Netflix era a virtual necessity. Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock first debuted on the Netflix series Daredevil, which ran for three seasons and eventually teamed Matt up with Marvel’s other Netflix heroes Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Danny Rand a.k.a. Iron Fist (Finn Jones) in The Defenders. 2018 seemingly marked the end of the line for all of Marvel’s Netflix heroes, only for Charlie Cox to return as Matt Murdock in a crowd-pleasing cameo in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Following Cox’s subsequent appearances as Daredevil on She-Hulk and Echo, the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again marks the true return of Matt Murdock as the protector of Hell’s Kitchen, with Jon Bernthal also reprising his role as Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher from his own Netflix series and appearance on Daredevil Season 2. Daredevil and The Punisher’s returns have also raised obvious questions as to whether Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter, and Finn Jones are also set to make their own comebacks in their respective roles. However, such speculation is really a formality. The fact of the matter is that Daredevil: Born Again, being released as it will be, makes the return of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist all but an inevitability.

The MCU Has Finally Begun Embracing Marvel-Netflix (Via Daredevil)

Throughout the Marvel-Netflix era, the relationship between the heroes seen on the streaming platform and the larger MCU was relatively distant. Indeed, Marvel’s Netflix shows were the only ones making any active effort to connect to the MCU on the big screen, with Daredevil making references to “the incident” in New York City (i.e. the Avengers battle with the Chitauri) or Jessica Jones name dropping “the green guy.” After Marvel-Netflix ended, that relationship began to change with Daredevil’s gradual return to the spotlight.

The most obvious example was in Charlie Cox’s return cameo as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home, with Matt serving as “a really good lawyer” for Peter Parker (Tom Holland). The subsequent migration of Marvel’s Netflix shows to Disney+ also included Marvel specifically placing each series into a specific place in the MCU’s overall timeline. Between this and Matt’s No Way Home cameo, Marvel Studios, for the first time, began sending explicit signals that all of Marvel-Netflix was being properly integrated into the MCU. An even more overt signal of exactly that has also been presented in the production history of Daredevil: Born Again.

[RELATED: 7 Daredevil Episodes You Need to Rewatch Before Born Again Premieres]

Daredevil: Born Again Is Effectively Daredevil Season 4 (Which Connects It to The Defenders)

When Daredevil: Born Again first went in front of the cameras, the show that was being produced was a very different one from the version that will ultimately arrive on Disney+. Born Again was initially conceived as having an 18-episode run and was positioned as a “reboot” of Daredevil for the MCU. It isn’t clear if that meant that Born Again was fully severing ties from Daredevil on Netflix or merely being given a change in style and tone. Regardless, Marvel Studios eventually came to the conclusion that Born Again, as it was shaping up, wasn’t where they wanted to take The Man Without Fear and hit the brakes on the series mid-production.

While Born Again will reportedly retain some material from what was initially filmed for the show, the overhaul of the show is said to have aimed to put it more in sync with Daredevil on Netflix. This is definitively born out in the trailer for Born Again, which shows Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) having a clear prior history, along with the presence of The Punisher following his role in Daredevil Season 2. However, in going this route, Marvel has also made the decision to tie Born Again into not just Daredevil, but all of Marvel-Netflix.

Frank Castle’s role in Daredevil Season 2 served as a backdoor pilot for The Punisher series on Netflix, so by implementing Frank’s return in this manner, Marvel Studios is effectively building upon the entirety of Frank’s Netflix history by directly informing his role on Born Again. Similarly, Daredevil Season 3 follows directly from the events of The Defenders, which itself is built upon each individual Defender’s preceding solo series. By essentially making Daredevil: Born Again into Daredevil Season 4, Marvel is, in effect, making every Marvel-Netflix series a building block of previous history leading into Matt Murdock’s new show.

Marvel Has Made Bringing the Defenders Back a Necessity

In choosing to make each Marvel-Netflix series part of the larger MCU canon, Daredevil: Born Again is also necessitated that each individual hero must return at some point. The Defenders establishes Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist as allies of Daredevil’s in protecting New York City, with Iron Fist even directly stepping into Daredevil’s place after his presumed death in The Defenders. Moreover, like Frank Castle’s move into The Punisher series after Daredevil Season 2, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Danny Rand each continued in at least one more season of their respective solo shows after The Defenders. This means that, with their connection to Daredevil through The Defenders made an essential part of Daredevil’s story, each of their post-Defenders stories, and the cliffhangers their shows ended on, are now equally relevant to their place in the MCU timeline.

This also means that Marvel has tacitly committed to doing with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist what they have already done with The Punisher and continue their respective journeys from where they left off, either by appearing in a cameo on Daredevil: Born Again or by restarting their solo series. At face value, Iron Fist’s ill-received first season would seemingly make doing so a bit more challenging for Danny Rand. However, with his generally much better-received arc from The Defenders onward, including the massively improved Iron Fist Season 2, it really isn’t that much more challenging to finally make Danny Rand’s meeting with his Iron Fist predecessor Orson Randall teased at the end of Iron Fist Season 2 than continuing The Punisher, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones’ stories from when viewers last saw them. Indeed, the ending of Iron Fist Season 2 also sets up two MCU Iron Fists for the price of one, with Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing also wielding the Iron Fist by the end of Season 2.

Despite the ambiguous status of Marvel-Netflix since each show’s cancellation, the reworking of Daredevil: Born Again into what is essentially Daredevil Season 4 has made a clear statement on the place of Matt’s fellow Defenders and the Punisher alike in the MCU’s future. By returning in the way that he has, The Man Without Fear has made all of Marvel-Netflix into a package deal, which creates an unspoken confirmation by Marvel Studios that Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist will return sometime after Daredevil: Born Again arrives — or might even make their returns with one or more of them dropping in to extend their greetings to Matt himself.

All of Marvel’s Netflix shows can be streamed on Disney+, and Daredevil: Born Again will also debut on Disney+ on March 4th.