Daredevil: Born Again Explained, From MCU Connections to Who’s Returning for the Marvel Series

The Devil’s work is never done. Coming more than six years since Marvel’s Daredevil was canceled by Netflix after three seasons, Daredevil is Born Again on Disney+. The revival, which comes from the Marvel Television unit of the Kevin Feige-led Marvel Studios, picks up years after Daredevil season 3 and after Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) subsequent appearances in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen appeared (sans costume) in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home but suited up in 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and 2024’s Echo, while Fisk’s Kingpin was the big bad behind 2021’s Hawkeye and Echo.

“I will admit, it’s not entirely unpleasant seeing you again,” Fisk, in their first face-to-face meeting since the Daredevil season 3 finale in 2018, tells Murdock in the just-released trailer. “A lot of time has passed. By the look of it, you’ve come up in the world.”

“I could say the same about you,” the blind lawyer says in response. Once the Kingpin of Crime, Murdock’s arch-nemesis is now Mayor-elect Fisk — and there’s hell to pay. Before we return to Hell’s Kitchen, here’s everything we know about Daredevil: Born Again, from who’s returning from the Marvel-Netflix series, to the plot, creators, and more.

RELATED: Every MCU Easter Egg in the Daredevil: Born Again Trailer

Where Can I Watch Marvel’s Daredevil Before Daredevil: Born Again?

The first three seasons of Marvel’s Daredevil are available to stream on Disney+ after being removed from Netflix in 2022 along with seasons of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and The Defenders.

What Is the Daredevil: Born Again Release Date?

Daredevil: Born Again premieres Tuesday, March 4, at 6pm PT/9pm ET on Disney+.

What Happened in the Daredevil Season 3 Finale?

After an incarcerated Fisk cooperated with the FBI to shield his beloved Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) from his crimes, he unleashed the unhinged FBI Agent Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter (Wilson Bethel) as his assassin. Fisk framed Matt and Daredevil as a criminal accomplice, and then threatened to expose Daredevil’s secret identity and hunt down his friends Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson).

But Daredevil issued his own threat: “You 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! 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.”

If Fisk exposes Daredevil, then Matt Murdock reveals that Vanesssa ordered the death of FBI Agent Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali). And so the Kingpin made a deal with the Devil. Fisk was eventually released from prison by the time of Hawkeye (set in December 2024, two years before Fisk is elected New York City Mayor in 2026).

Who’s in the Daredevil: Born Again Cast?

Actors returning from the Netflix series include Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Wilson Bethel as Dex/Bullseye, Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk, and Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/the Punisher.

MCU newcomers include Margarita Levieva (The Deuce) as Matt’s love interest, Heather Glenn, and Genneya Walton (Never Have I Ever) as BB Urich, daughter of the late New York Bulletin journalist Ben Urich (Daredevil‘s Vondie Curtis-Hall). Nikki James (Severance) is playing Kirsten McDuffie, a lawyer and Assistant D.A. introduced during the Mark Waid-penned Daredevil comic run, and late actor Kamar de los Reyes (One Life to Live) will play the vigilante Hector Ayala/White Tiger.

Arty Froushan (House of the Dragon) has been cast as Buck Cashman, who in the comics is Bullet, a hired gun of Fisk’s with the powers of superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and durability, and Zabryna Guevara (Gotham) is playing Sheila Rivera. Michael Gandolfini (The Many Saints of Newark) is playing Daniel Blade, an original character who might be a cover for Fisk’s gang-affiliated son Byron “Butch” Fisk (who eventually succeeded Wilson as the new Kingpin following the events of Devil’s Reign).

What Is Daredevil: Born Again About?

Per the official synopsis, “Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer with heightened abilities is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.”

Which Comic Books Inspired Daredevil: Born Again?

Born Again takes its name from the five-issue comic book storyline by Daredevil writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli, which sees Kingpin learn Daredevil’s secret identity — information he then uses to systematically destroy Matt Murdock’s life. (In the comics, it was Karen Page, Matt’s friend and former lover, who traded away the secret for a drug fix.) First, he’s audited by the IRS and his bank accounts frozen. Then he’s accused of paying a witness to perjure himself. Then The Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich receives a tip that his friend Matt Murdock faces a host of criminal charges, including bribery, perjury, and misconduct.

He’s disbarred, his soon-to-be-foreclosed apartment is bombed, and as he’s driven to the brink of madness, Matt considers crossing a line: killing the Kingpin.

“I have shown him that a man without hope… is a man without fear.”

The series also draws on elements of recent Daredevil comic book runs by writers Charles Soule and Chip Zdarsky, namely “Mayor Fisk” (2017’s Daredevil #595-600) and “Devil’s Reign” (2022’s Devil’s Reign #1-6). Mayor Fisk’s first act in office was to clampdown on the city’s vigilantes — including Daredevil, Spider-Man, and the Punisher — by enacting the Powers Act.

While Murdock tried to build a case against Fisk for election fraud, D.A. Ben Hochberg assigned him the task of building a case against superheroes. (At the time, Murdock was working in the D.A.’s office, and his once-exposed secret identity was put back in the bottle by the children of the Purple Man.)

In the Devil’s Reign storyline, Mayor Fisk enforced his anti-superhero laws with a new team of Thunderbolts — officially-sanctioned supervillains like Shocker, Electro, the Rhino, Whiplash, Doctor Octopus, and their leader, U.S. Agent — and Thunderbolt Units, a police force of specialized officers tasked with upholding the law and arresting the superheroes in violation of the Powers Act.

“I’m Daredevil. I make justice. I will save my city from Wilson Fisk.”

Fisk kept Zebediah Killgrave, a.k.a. the Purple Man, inside a “Psycho-Prism” and then rounded up Killgrave’s children as part of a plot to amplify the Purple Man’s powers of persuasion and brainwash voters into re-electing Mayor Fisk. With the city’s costumed vigilantes forced underground, and Fisk’s Thunderbolts and anti-crime drones patrolling the city, New York became a crime-free but authoritarian domain under Fisk’s reign.

It was at this time that Fisk used the Purple Man’s powers to remember Daredevil’s secret identity after his memories were altered by the Purple Children. His plan involved using the Purple Man’s mind control to brainwash the city’s citizens into an army of purple-powered people, and once again nearly drove Daredevil to murder to stop the Kingpin once and for all. Elektra convinced Daredevil to spare a defeated Fisk’s life, who then had his son Butch installed as the new Kingpin while Harlem hero Luke Cage replaced him as mayor.

Who’s the Villain of Daredevil: Born Again?

“Sometimes peace needs to be broken, and chaos must reign,” Mayor Fisk tells Murdock in the trailer. While their truce is in place, a new threat emerges: Muse, a sadistic serial killer whose victims are his “art” — and New York City his canvas. Introduced in 2016’s Daredevil (Vol. 5) #11, the mysterious Muse left blood-painted murals across the city and left a trail of murdered Inhumans in his wake: dozens of corpses posed like statues. Muse was captured but eventually escaped prison during the “Mayor Fisk” arc, when Matt had accepted Fisk’s offer to serve as his deputy mayor to keep a watchful eye on the king of organized crime.

What Role Does The Punisher Play in Daredevil: Born Again?

When the Inhuman serial killer artist murdered six police officers at a mural he painted of the Punisher, Mayor Fisk blamed the deaths of the “SoHo Six” on Frank Castle to further his anti-vigilante agenda in Daredevil #599. Fisk riled up the citizens to turn them against the city’s heroes “because he knows we’ll fight him with everything we’ve got,” Daredevil said. Murdock attempted to convince Mayor Fisk to let him contact his “friend” Daredevil to bring Muse to justice, while secretly conspiring with the city’s outlawed superheroes — Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, Misty Knight, and Echo — to take down the Kingpin.

In Born Again, Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force targets a fugitive Frank Castle, who seems to take the fall for a high-profile murder.

“The only hero this city needs… is its king.”

Is Daredevil: Born Again Season 4 of Marvel’s Daredevil?

Daredevil: Born Again is a continuation of Marvel’s Daredevil, and is set in the MCU. And like its predecessor, the series will be rated TV-MA.

“The real trick was to have the DNA of the old Netflix show, but then push it forward into something very new,” showrunner Dario Scardapane previously told EW.

“The thing that we kept talking about was, this show has had the success that it’s had and has appealed to a very specific demographic because it’s one of the few superhero shows that is so dark and sinister at times,” Cox added. “Vincent and I both felt like if you lose that, you are at risk of losing the identity of our show. So we really pushed for the show to remain geared towards an older audience and not dumbed down to kind of capture a wider net of people. I think in some ways it’s even darker than a lot of the stuff we’ve done in the past.”

Who Are the Daredevil: Born Again Creators?

Dario Scardapane replaced series co-creators Matt Corman and Chris Ord as showrunner during a “significant” creative overhaul following the Hollywood writers’ strike in 2023.

Scardapane, who served as writer-executive producer on Marvel-Netflix’s The Punisher, reworked what was described by The Hollywood Reporter as “a legal procedural that did not resemble the Netflix version.” Marvel TV also hired Moon Knight and Loki season 2 directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead to direct the series alongside Michael Cuesta (Dexter, Homeland), Jeffrey Nachmanoff (Chicago Fire, Lovecraft Country), and David Boyd (Friday Night Lights, The Walking Dead).

The executive producers are Scardapane, Ord & Corman, Benson & Moorhead, and Chris Gary (Secret Invasion), with Kevin Feige (Deadpool & Wolverine), Louis D’Esposito (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Brad Winderbaum (X-Men ’97), and Sana Amanat (Ms. Marvel) for Marvel Studios.

Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again is streaming March 4 on Disney+.