The Defenders’ Return in Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 Officially Addressed by Marvel: “The World This Is All Heading Towards”

In Daredevil: Born Again, the titular character isn’t the only hero who’s around. As Season 2 went on, the creative team brought in more members of the Defenders; Jessica Jones played a supporting role in a few episodes, and Luke Cage made his return in the finale. When you factor in set photos from Born Again Season 3, the messaging from Marvel appears clear. Nearly a decade after their eponymous Netflix series debuted, the Defenders are getting back together. According to showrunner Dario Scardapane, this is all part of the plan to keep expanding the scope of the Disney+ series.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly following the Season 2 finale, Scardapane touched on the inclusion of multiple Defenders. “Along the way, particularly in [Daredevil: Born Again] Season 2, we’re touching on the larger New York — the New York that is not quite near Avengers Tower but in the same city,” he said. “And there are characters, storylines; we have the Punisher special coming out, which is part of that same world. So as it’s progressed, it just feels like you’re opening doors or going down streets to a neighborhood that existed 10 years ago.”

He continued, “The establishment of the street-level characters in Netflix’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Defenders, Punisher, that’s the world that this is all heading towards, in my opinion. That’s just the way I’m looking at it creatively. Now that we brought in a couple of our neighbors, in a way, yeah, it’s definitely expanding.”

Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 Will Be a Defenders Reunion

The long-awaited Defenders reunion is happening at a fascinating time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s history. In the wake of the uneven reception to the Multiverse Saga, Kevin Feige has made some changes to output strategy. Notably, he wants to limit the number of new films and TV shows released annually, combating issues of overexposure that have plagued the franchise in the past. This means that there are only so many projects to go around, which is why Marvel is using Daredevil: Born Again as a stage to bring these characters back together.

It will be interesting to see if Marvel can pull this off in a manner that’s satisfying for fans. Jessica Jones’ return was highly anticipated, but an argument can be made that it was nothing more than an underwhelming bit of fan service. With so much of the focus (understandably) on Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, there frankly wasn’t much for Jessica to do in her brief appearances, so the challenge for Scardapane and Co. moving forward is to make the roles for the other Defenders worthwhile. If the plan is to keep expanding the street-level New York sandbox, then the creative team likely has some ideas in mind.

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Still, it’ll be a tricky balancing act. At the end of the day, Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 is a Daredevil show, and set photos have already revealed Wilson Fisk’s return. Continuing the arcs of those two characters should be a primary goal for Season 3, which could create a scenario where some of the other Defenders aren’t as fleshed out. After waiting so long for these characters to come back, it would be disappointing for fans if they were shortchanged in any way. Contrastly, putting too much of the focus on the other Defenders at the expense of Daredevil would create the opposite problem; fans are tuning in to see Matt Murdock, who is compelling enough to carry a series all on his own.

In the Netflix era, each Defender got his or her own show so they could be fully developed as characters before the big teamup. With Marvel pumping the breaks and slowing things down, the odds of the studio greenlighting separate series like that for Disney+ are low (especially considering the Mouse House’s opinion that “streaming is dead”). One thing they could look into is taking advantage of the MCU’s Special Presentation banner and produce one-off specials for the likes of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage a la The Punisher: One Last Kill. While that wouldn’t be the same as a complete series, it would still be a way to give other Defenders more of the spotlight in a project where they wouldn’t be competing for screen time.

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