7 Things to Remember Before Daredevil: Born Again

The Devil’s work is never done. It’s been nearly seven years since Marvel’s Daredevil was canceled at Netflix after three seasons, but now blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) is reborn. In the new Marvel TV series Daredevil: Born Again, just as many years have passed since the climactic confrontation between the guardian Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and his archnemesis — Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), the Kingpin of Crime — in the season 3 finale, which ended on a hopeful note for the “avocados at law”: Matt and best friends Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll).

In the meantime, Matt has been busy, both as a lawyer and a vigilante. But his work is just beginning when former mob boss Fisk announces his candidacy for mayor, and the sins of the past draw Daredevil into a fight for the soul of the city in the nine-episode first season (premiering March 4 on Disney+).

If you’re not caught up on Daredevil or the rest of the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are a few things you need to remember before Daredevil: Born Again.

Matt Murdock, Guardian Devil

Since we saw him last in the Daredevil season 3 finale, Matt survived Thanos’ snap and was still active as Daredevil during the five-year period before the Avengers blipped the snapped back to life. (It was around this time that Fisk secured his release from prison and began to rebuild and expand his criminal empire decimated by Daredevil.)

Years before the events of Hawkeye, where Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) sought revenge against Clint Barton/Ronin (Jeremy Renner) for her father’s murder, Maya proved herself as Fisk’s protégé when she held her own in a fight with Daredevil circa 2021 in Echo (more on that below).

In 2024, Matt represented Peter Parker (Tom Holland) after his secret identity was exposed by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and he was arrested by the Department of Damage Control in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Matt got those charges dismissed, and then he defended Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) when he was under investigation by the DODC over the use of the Stark drones in London.

By 2025, Matt defended suit designer Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews) when he was sued by the frog-themed vigilante Eugene Paul Patilio/Leapfrog (Brandon Stanley) over a malfunctioning costume. Leapfrog’s lawyer was Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), a.k.a She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, who then teamed up with Daredevil when Leapfrog kidnapped Luke after losing his court case.

Nelson, Murdock & Page

When Matt and Foggy’s Hell’s Kitchen-based practice was Nelson and Murdock, the two defense attorneys took Karen as their first client after she was framed for the murder of a co-worker. The pro bono case simultaneously proved Karen’s innocence and exposed the Union Allied corruption scandal: fraud involving government contracts for the West Side reconstruction following the Battle of New York in The Avengers.

It was at this time that the black-clad “Masked Man” and Nelson and Murdock, Attorneys at Law, found themselves on Fisk’s radar. Karen joined Matt and Foggy’s nascent practice as their assistant in Daredevil‘s season 1 premiere, and by season 2, the practice took the name Nelson, Murdock and Page.

As Matt and Karen’s relationship turned romantic, she forged a friendship with their client Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) — the gun-toting vigilante known as the Punisher. After Karen investigated a coverup about his family’s murder in Daredevil season 2, she came to her friend Frank’s aid once more in The Punisher season 2 episode “The Abyss.”

The Devil You Know

Following Fisk’s first defeat and arrest by Daredevil in the first season finale, FBI Special Agent Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali) visited the incarcerated Kingpin in the Daredevil season 3 episode “Resurrection.”

“Do you have anyone in your life who you love so much, you’d do anything to protect them?” Fisk asked Nadeem, referring to his beloved Vanessa Marianna (Ayelet Zurer). “I have made many mistakes. But I accept the debt I’m paying because of them. But what I will not accept is that the woman that I love should have to pay for them, too. I would do anything to protect her. Anything.”

And “anything” meant making a deal with the FBI to protect Vanessa, who was facing prosecution and prison as an accessory for Fisk’s crimes. It was around this time that Special Agent Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter (Wilson Bethel) saved Fisk from a hit, and Matt — who was thought dead for months after Midland Circle’s collapse in The Defenders — revealed he was alive when he warned Foggy that he and Karen were in danger with Fisk out of prison.

As the vigilante vowed to bring Fisk down, the Kingpin realized that Matt Murdock and Daredevil were one and the same when he watched the blind attorney fight his way out of Ryker’s Island. Fisk then manipulated unstable marksman Dex into becoming an assassin, and had him don Daredevil’s suit to frame the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen as a killer.

Let the Devil Out

Fisk framed Matt as his fixer and Daredevil as a murderer, making both of his identities a target of the FBI. Fisk wanted Karen killed, and Matt wanted Fisk killed, declaring: “When I get to Fisk, I’m gonna kill him.” Daredevil saved Karen from Dex-Devil, and then confessed he missed his “moment” to kill Fisk in his penthouse.

After Fisk sent a hit squad to have Nadeem murdered before he could testify against him in court — represented by Matt, Foggy, and Karen — the since-cleared Fisk reunited with Vanessa, who then embraced his criminal enterprise.

“I don’t want to admire your world. I want to live inside of it with you,” Vanessa told Fisk, reminding him: “My hands were never clean. If you truly want me, share your life with me. Fully.” Vanessa ordered the hit on Agent Nadeem’s life, which ended with a bullet fired by Dex. But when Daredevil exposed Fisk’s manipulations, and Dex learned that Fisk had the woman he was obsessed with killed, he turned on the Kingpin.

Daredevil season 3 converged and concluded at the Presidential Hotel, where Fisk married Vanessa in a ceremony crashed by Dex and Daredevil. It was revealed Nadeem recorded a dying declaration documenting Fisk’s crimes — coercion, conspiracy, blackmail, extortion, and murder — just before Dex tried to kill the Fisks.

During a three-way fight between Daredevil, Dex, and the Kingpin, Fisk shattered Dex’s spine by throwing him into a wall. Daredevil duked it out with Fisk, and then beat him — literally and figuratively.

“I will never stop hunting Karen Page or Foggy Nelson. I will tell the world who you really are. No prison can keep me,” Fisk told Matt, goading him into killing him.

Last Rites

Daredevil almost crossed the line, but he refused to kill Fisk. “God knows I want to, but you don’t get to destroy who I am,” Matt said. “You will go back to prison, and you will live the rest of your miserable life in a cage, knowing you’ll never have Vanessa, that this city rejected you. It beat you. I beat you!”

Matt then threatened Fisk with the only leverage he had: Vanessa. “You’ll keep my secret, and you won’t harm Karen Page or Foggy Nelson or anyone else. Because if you do, I will go after your wife. And I will prove Vanessa ordered the murder of Agent Ray Nadeem — and like her husband, she’ll spend the rest of her life in a cell.”

Hell Breaks Loose

Although season 3 ended with Bullseye behind bars, the final episode made it clear that he would return deadlier than ever. Dex underwent an experimental surgery to repair his broken spine, which was repaired with a Cogmium steel-reinforced framework (rather than an adamantium-laced skeleton like his comic counterpart).

The last we saw him, a defeated Dex had Daredevil and Kingpin in his crosshairs, and the Born Again trailer revealed that all hell will break loose when an escaped Bullseye targets his enemies…

Mayor Fisk

Fisk was right that no prison could keep him: Hawkeye revealed the Kingpin was released from prison post-snap, at which time Fisk’s Tracksuit Mafia was targeted by the sword-wielding vigilante Ronin (a disguised Clint Barton). When a vengeful Maya Lopez tracked down Clint and his protégé Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), Maya learned that her “uncle” Fisk orchestrated her father William’s (Zahn McClarnon) death at Ronin’s blade. “We’re family, and sometimes family doesn’t see eye-to-eye,” Fisk told Maya, who then shot him point-blank in the face.

The Echo series revealed that Fisk survived Maya’s attempt on his life, and that he spent months recovering in the hospital with damage to his left eye. When he tried to have Maya killed in Oklahoma, she used her powers to make Fisk relive his childhood trauma, telling her uncle, “Let go of the pain. Let go of the anger.” But he couldn’t, and was left enraged by his spiritual experience.

In the Echo post-credits scene, Fisk was on his private jet returning to New York when he called a meeting with the remaining heads of the Five Families. Meanwhile, Fisk turned an eye to the upcoming New York mayoral race, where news anchors said that New Yorkers “want somebody who is a fighter” to fix “legitimate problems” in the city. The anchors said that a “bare-knuckle brawler” and an outsider unafraid to take on the establishment would do well in the race, but that no such candidate has emerged. “It could be anybody’s race,” an anchor said, setting up the Mayor Fisk storyline from the Daredevil comics.

Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again premieres March 4 on Disney+, with new episodes airing on Tuesdays.