Daredevil: Born Again

• 1. Introduction

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  Daredevil: Born Again premiered on Disney+ on the 4th of March 2025. A first creative team had already filmed six episodes when Marvel Studios screened the footage and made a frank internal decision: the series was not working. Those episodes were largely set aside. A new showrunner arrived in October 2023, along with new lead directors and a newly written pilot. Star Charlie Cox, who plays blind lawyer Matt Murdock, later described the studio's willingness to reverse course as a decision that "takes a huge amount of courage and money to make a U-turn like that." The series that followed is a New York crime drama connecting directly to a Netflix original the studio had originally planned to sidestep. How the show lost its direction so quickly, what the first version was actually attempting, and why the characters seemed to demand something entirely different are the questions worth sitting with.

• 2. Netflix, Canceled

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  In November 2018, Netflix canceled Daredevil after three seasons. The original deal between Marvel and Netflix contained a restrictive clause: the characters could not appear in any non-Netflix production for at least two years after cancellation. Star Charlie Cox had been anticipating a fourth season. His co-star Amy Rutberg, who played Marci Stahl, said the cast and crew had imagined five seasons in total, ending with a showdown between Daredevil and Wilson Fisk / Kingpin. Netflix said the three existing seasons would remain on the service and that the character would "live on in future projects for Marvel."

  Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, began discussions about continuing the franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe with one firm condition. He insisted that Cox and D'Onofrio return, saying the pair were as "inextricably linked" to their characters as Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were to Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. Feige contacted Cox in June 2020 about reprising his role. Cox first returned as Murdock in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. D'Onofrio also reprised his role that year, appearing in the Disney+ series Hawkeye. Feige announced Cox's return publicly in December 2021. By March 2022, Netflix's license had lapsed and Disney had regained the rights.

  Formal development on a new Daredevil-led series began in January 2022. That July, at the San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel announced the project as Daredevil: Born Again with a planned 18-episode first season. Cox said 18 episodes was "a huge undertaking," chosen in part because a lawyer protagonist opens so many story possibilities. The subtitle references Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's 1986 comic book storyline of the same name, though the series does not adapt it directly. Among the directors who joined that original 18-episode production was actor Tom Hiddleston, a close friend of Cox who portrays Loki in the MCU, hired to direct an episode in the later half of the season.

• 3. The First Vision

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  Matt Corman and Chris Ord were confirmed as head writers and executive producers in May 2022, and they shaped the initial version of Born Again as a legal procedural. Feige explained the concept to Cox: bring a traditional broadcast procedural into streaming, using a lawyer character as the natural vehicle. Cox said the tone was dark but not as gory as the Netflix series. The intent was to broaden the character's appeal toward a younger audience and to reimagine Murdock as somewhat different from the person Netflix viewers knew. Murdock's friends Franklin Nelson and Karen Page were largely not acknowledged in this version.

  Michael Cuesta was the first director to join the production, arriving in March 2023 to direct the first two episodes. Jeffrey Nachmanoff came in May to direct the third and fourth; David Boyd directed the fifth and sixth. Clark Johnson, who had directed episodes of the Netflix series Luke Cage, joined the same month for additional episodes. In this version of the series, Cox did not appear in costume as Daredevil until the fourth episode.

  Both Cox and D'Onofrio grew uneasy with the direction. Cox said it was confusing that Born Again was neither a direct continuation of the Netflix original nor a complete reboot. Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming at Marvel Studios, later acknowledged that the studio had believed it could "play it loose" with the Netflix history, keeping Cox and D'Onofrio while otherwise resetting to avoid alienating new viewers. Cox said this approach left Daredevil and Kingpin being treated like "variants," a concept from prior MCU projects, in a way some viewers found disingenuous. He worried the series was "unlearning" lessons that had made the original work, saying the character "really does work best in a serialized platform, but also when it's darker and grittier and there's less tongue-in-cheek levity." D'Onofrio said Feige listened closely when the two actors raised their concerns. The writer who would chart a new path had come from within the Daredevil world itself: Dario Scardapane, a writer on the Netflix spinoff series The Punisher.

• 4. The Reset

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  Dario Scardapane arrived as showrunner with a clear mandate: make Born Again a direct continuation of the Netflix series. He brought deep familiarity with that world. Scardapane later described the Netflix productions as a shared neighborhood: the same building for writers' rooms, shared soundstages. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher were all made with the same sense of place. His goal for Born Again was to expand outward and eventually cover that entire world, beginning in earnest with the second season.

  Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead came on as lead directors, having previously worked on Moon Knight and the second season of Loki for Marvel Studios. D'Onofrio called the pair Marvel's "hottest talent." His friend and Moon Knight co-star Ethan Hawke had spoken to D'Onofrio about his positive experience working with them. Benson and Moorhead were more comfortable with Born Again's grounded style, which was closer to their independent films than the "mind-bending sci-fi affairs" of their previous Marvel projects. Moorhead described the show's stakes as "primal and graspable."

  Three new episodes were written, including a new pilot. That pilot, as Scardapane designed it, begins a few years after the end of the Netflix Daredevil, with Murdock, Nelson, and Page back at their law firm. Some existing footage was retained: directors Cuesta, Nachmanoff, and Boyd were confirmed in August 2024 as credited contributors. Nachmanoff and Boyd returned to film new scenes and helped blend the older material with the new. Cox said the overhauled series felt much more in line with the original Netflix run.

  Nine episodes were confirmed as the first season total when Cox announced in May 2024 that number had been completed. The studio announced in August 2024 that the remaining material from the original 18-episode plan would form a separate second season. Scardapane described second season production as a "better-oiled machine," with eight episodes and additional directors including Solvan Naim, Angela Barnes, and Iain B. MacDonald. Following the overhaul, Marvel Studios retroactively added all the Marvel Netflix series to the official MCU timeline on Disney+. Cox and D'Onofrio also joined as executive producers for the second season.

• 5. A New York Crime Story

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  Scardapane described Born Again as a "New York crime story," a clear departure from the noir tone of the Netflix original. He drew on The Sopranos, the 1990 film King of New York, and other crime material from the 1990s. Brad Winderbaum compared Born Again to Game of Thrones because it shows "multiple factions vying for power in really complex ways" across New York City. Scardapane said the series had a "very Frank Miller-esque" tone. He added that other Daredevil writers and artists, including Chip Zdarsky and Brian Michael Bendis, had "a particular tone and a particular sweet spot" that some desired characters could inhabit.

  Executive producer Sana Amanat said killing Foggy Nelson was "the only thing that made sense" when telling a story about Murdock starting his life over without the mask. Cox said the new story needed to be "big, brave, and bold." At the start of Born Again, Murdock has been away from the Daredevil identity for a year. Bullseye killed Nelson, and Murdock tried to kill Bullseye in return; that act, the series notes, is the line that "was crossed." Amanat believed Nelson's death was the only way to make Murdock's withdrawal from vigilantism feel real.

  The first season sees Wilson Fisk elected mayor of New York, a move Fisk decides to pursue after the post-credits scene of the Disney+ series Echo. Scardapane said the Mayor Fisk storyline grew too topical and drifted from the "large, mythological genre stuff" the comics offered. He planned for it to end with the second season. Scardapane saw the first two seasons as "Part 1" and "Part 2" of a single story, with a "Part 3" still ahead. Amanat said the Murdock and Fisk relationship "will always be the heartbeat of this franchise." The series also carries a serial killer storyline involving a character called Muse, inherited from the original version of Born Again. Scardapane said he could not fully resolve it in the first season but developed it in the second, tracing how therapist Heather Glenn is shaped by Muse's violence.

  Elektra Natchios, the Hand, and the original Netflix Defenders were among the characters Winderbaum said the studio was open to revisiting. Scardapane's writers maintained a wish list drawn from iconic comic book runs, integrating whoever fit each season's story and Marvel's wider plans. He said some desired figures, such as Elektra or Colleen Wing, "work in that sweet spot" the series was aiming for. The third season draws from "The Devil in Cell Block D," published in Daredevil vol. 2, issues 82 through 87, in 2006. It opens with Murdock in jail after publicly revealing he is Daredevil at the end of the second season, while Fisk goes into exile.

• 6. Rebuilding the Cast

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  Cox began preparing for the role of Matt Murdock in October 2022, focusing on mixed martial arts. His goal was to show Murdock drawing on multiple fighting styles depending on the opponent, rather than fighting as an all-around brawler. D'Onofrio chose a different physical approach than he had used for the Netflix series, where he had gained 40 pounds for the role. For Born Again he wore a fat suit, as he had done starting with Hawkeye. He said modern technology had made the suit lighter and more realistic, and he was glad to avoid gaining the weight again.

  Before the creative overhaul, the plan had been to bring back Cox and D'Onofrio while not expecting most of the original Netflix cast to return. Sandrine Holt had been cast to replace Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk. After the overhaul, Zurer was brought back to reprise the role she had played in the Netflix series. Deborah Ann Woll returned as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, and Wilson Bethel as Bullseye. Scardapane said Karen Page was "the heart and soul of this mythology" and that her interactions with Murdock bring more humanity out of him. Clark Johnson, who had joined as a director during the first creative team's tenure, also took on the acting role of Cherry, an investigator. Johnson modeled the character on Roy Scheider's performance in the 1971 film The French Connection.

  Toby Leonard Moore reprised his role as James Wesley in the second season, playing Fisk's former right-hand man who had been killed by Karen Page in the original Netflix series. Krysten Ritter returned as Jessica Jones, a former superhero with PTSD who runs her own detective agency. Mike Colter appears in the second season finale as Luke Cage. Matthew Lillard joined as Mr. Charles, an influential operator working for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Lili Taylor joined as Marge McCaffrey, the governor of New York.

  The third season brings Finn Jones back as Danny Rand / Iron Fist, joining Ritter and Colter to reunite all four original Netflix Defenders alongside Daredevil. Margarita Levieva plays Heather Glenn across all three seasons, starting as Murdock's therapist and love interest. Levieva said Glenn was the first girlfriend Murdock was "truly committed to." In February 2025, it was announced that Jon Bernthal would reprise his role as Frank Castle / Punisher in a television special titled The Punisher: One Last Kill, conceived during filming of the first season. Reinaldo Marcus Green was set to direct it, co-writing the script with Bernthal. The special is set for release on Disney+ on the 12th of May 2026, and Woll also reprises her role as Karen Page in it.

• 7. On Screen

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  The series shoots at Silvercup Studios East in Queens, with location work across New York. Emily Gunshor served as costume designer, and Michael Shaw as production designer. Ryan Meinerding, who had designed the Daredevil suit for the Netflix series, returned to create the Born Again version. The new suit carries a darker tone of red to reflect Murdock's evolution. It adds black detailing and a more textured surface, described by the production as less shiny than the Netflix original.

  In July 2024, the Newton Brothers were announced as composers for the series, having previously scored X-Men '97. They expressed deep affection for both the Daredevil comics and the main theme of the original Netflix series, which had been briefly reused in She-Hulk and the animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. The Newton Brothers built their main theme for Born Again around that earlier theme, originally composed by John Paesano and Braden Kimball. The new theme was released as a digital single by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music on the 4th of March 2025. The first season's full score arrived in two digital volumes: music from the first four episodes on the 28th of March, and music from the remaining five on the 18th of April.

  The two-episode premiere of Daredevil: Born Again received 7.5 million views on Disney+ within its first five days, the biggest debut on the platform for 2025 at that point. For comparison, the two-episode debut of Agatha All Along in 2024 had collected 9.3 million views within its first seven days. On Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 224 critics gave the first season a positive review, with an average score of 7.70 out of 10. Critics praised the character-driven storytelling and the performances of Cox and D'Onofrio but acknowledged the visible seams of the creative overhaul; some compared the result to Frankenstein's monster. Metacritic assigned a score of 69 out of 100 based on 33 critics.

  The eight-episode second season, part of Phase Six of the MCU, premiered on the 24th of March 2026 and was widely seen as an improvement over the first. On Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 118 critics gave a positive review, with an average of 7.80 out of 10. Metacritic scored it 73 out of 100 based on 16 critics. The consensus praised the season's "punchier narrative momentum" and its fuller embrace of the Netflix legacy. Critic Caroline Siede, writing for The A.V. Club, described the second season as "synthesizing its two halves into a more cohesive whole." At the Saturn Awards on the 8th of March 2026, Born Again won Best Superhero Television Series. Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio received individual nominations at the Critics' Choice Super Awards on the 7th of August 2025.

  A third season was confirmed in September 2025, with Scardapane returning as showrunner and Benson, Moorhead, and MacDonald back as directors. In May 2025, Winderbaum said the strong audience response had given Marvel Studios the confidence to release the series "annually into the future." He said the studio hoped to anchor each release to March. The first two seasons both arrived in that month, and the third is set for March 2027.