Daredevil: Born Again

Daredevil: Born Again is an American television series created by Dario Scardapane and Matt Corman & Chris Ord for the streaming service Disney+, based on Marvel Comics featuring the character Daredevil. It is the 13th television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) produced by Marvel Studios, via its Marvel Television label, sharing continuity with the films and television series of the franchise. Born Again is a revival and continuation of Daredevil (2015–2018), an earlier series produced by the previous Marvel Television production company and originally released on Netflix. Scardapane serves as showrunner with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as lead directors.
Charlie Cox reprises his role as Matt Murdock / Daredevil from Marvel's Netflix television series and prior Marvel Studios productions, starring alongside Vincent D'Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Genneya Walton, Clark Johnson, and Michael Gandolfini. Margarita Levieva, Wilson Bethel, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Arty Froushan, Ayelet Zurer, Kamar de los Reyes, Jon Bernthal, Mohan Kapur, and Tony Dalton also star in the first season.
Following the cancellation of Daredevil in 2018, Cox and D'Onofrio reprised their roles for Marvel Studios projects starting in 2021. A new Daredevil series entered development in early 2022, with Corman and Ord attached as head writers by that May. They gave the series an episodic structure and lighter tone than the Netflix series. Born Again was announced in July 2022 with a planned 18-episode first season. The series' name references the 1986 comic book storyline "Born Again" by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, but the series does not directly adapt that storyline. Marvel Studios decided to overhaul the series by late September 2023 and released Corman, Ord, and the initial directors, though Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and David Boyd are still credited for episodes they directed. Scardapane, Benson, and Moorhead were hired the following month, and the approach changed to be more serialized and directly connected to the Netflix series. The planned 18-episode season was also split into two seasons. Filming occurs in New York.
Daredevil: Born Again premiered on Disney+ on March 4, 2025, with its first two episodes. The first season consists of nine episodes, and is part of Phase Five of the MCU. It received positive reviews from critics. The second season is set to premiere in early-to-mid 2026 and will consist of eight episodes. An untitled Punisher television special, starring Bernthal and conceived during the filming of the first season, is in development for the Marvel Studios Special Presentations banner. Both will be part of Phase Six of the MCU.
Daredevil: Born Again begins several years after the events of Daredevil (2015–2018), and a year after blind lawyer Matt Murdock stopped his activities as the masked vigilante Daredevil. In the first season, Murdock continues his fight for justice as a lawyer while former crime boss Wilson Fisk is elected mayor of New York City, putting the pair on a collision course.
The second season was confirmed in August 2024. It will consist of eight episodes. Scardapane returned as showrunner, with Benson and Moorhead returning as directors. Filming began in late February 2025 and is scheduled to end that July. The season is set to premiere in early-to-mid 2026.
The television series Daredevil, based on the Marvel Comics character Daredevil and produced by Marvel Television and ABC Studios, premiered on Netflix in April 2015, and lasted for three seasons until its cancellation in November 2018. Netflix said the three seasons would remain on the service, while the title character would "live on in future projects for Marvel". Deadline Hollywood noted that, unlike some of the other Marvel series on Netflix that were also canceled, "the door seems to be wide open" for the series to continue elsewhere, potentially on Disney's streaming service Disney+. However, The Hollywood Reporter said this was unlikely, especially since, as reported by Variety, the original deal between Marvel and Netflix stipulated that the characters could not appear in any non-Netflix series or films for at least two years following the cancellation of Daredevil. Kevin A. Mayer, chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International, said there was a possibility that Disney+ could revive the series but this had not yet been discussed. Hulu's senior vice president of originals, Craig Erwich, said his streaming service was also open to reviving the series.
Star Charlie Cox was saddened by the cancellation, explaining that he was excited by the plans for a fourth season which he and the rest of the cast and crew had expected to be made. He was hopeful there would be an opportunity to portray Matt Murdock / Daredevil again in some form. Amy Rutberg, who portrayed Marci Stahl in the series, said the cast and crew had expected it to last for five seasons, with a new antagonist being introduced in the fourth season before a final showdown between Daredevil and Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk / Kingpin in the fifth. When Marvel Studios began discussions about continuing the Daredevil franchise within their shared universe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), studio president Kevin Feige insisted they bring back Cox and D'Onofrio, feeling the pair were as "inextricably linked" to their characters as MCU actors Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans were to Tony Stark / Iron Man and Steve Rogers / Captain America, respectively. Feige contacted Cox in June 2020 about reprising his role as Murdock in the MCU, and he announced that Cox was returning for future Marvel Studios projects in December 2021. Cox first reprised his role in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), while D'Onofrio first reprised his role as Fisk in the Disney+ series Hawkeye (2021). Daredevil was moved from Netflix to Disney+ in March 2022 after Netflix's license for the series ended and Disney regained the rights.
Marvel Studios decided to make a new Daredevil-led series in January 2022, following the appearances in No Way Home and Hawkeye. Cox discussed such a series in March, believing it should begin a few years after the end of the previous series and be "re-imagined". Regarding whether it should be rated TV-MA as the Netflix series was, he believed Marvel Studios would be able to create a faithful version of the character without that rating. However, he found the comics "more exciting, readable, relatable when it lives in a darker space" such as Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's run on the comics, and he felt important attributes of the character such as his age, Christian guilt, and history with women were more mature subjects. Cox was hopeful that a new series could have a more faithful adaptation of the 1986 comic book storyline "Born Again" by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, than the original series which had taken inspiration from that storyline for its third season. He described the storyline as "kind of a PG comic" and a guide for how the series could work with that rating.
Later in March, a Daredevil reboot series was reported to be in development with Marvel Studios' Feige and Chris Gary as producers. The series was confirmed to be in development for Disney+ in late May, with Matt Corman and Chris Ord attached as head writers and executive producers. The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline Hollywood both described it as a fourth season of the original series. During the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con in July, the series was officially announced as Daredevil: Born Again and was revealed to have 18 episodes for its first season. Cox said an 18-episode series was a "huge undertaking" and was chosen in part due to the many story possibilities that come with Murdock being a lawyer. Christian Holub at Entertainment Weekly believed the title was a reference to the character "literally being 'born again' into the official MCU" rather than the series being an adaptation of the "Born Again" storyline. Cox described Born Again as a "whole new thing" and not a fourth season of the Netflix series, which he felt was "the way to go. If you are going to do it again, do it differently." D'Onofrio reiterated this, saying they had few plans to connect to the original. He added that they were working on two seasons and there would be "gigantic payoffs" during the second.
Directors were hired for blocks of episodes: Michael Cuesta joined in March 2023 to direct the first two episodes; Jeffrey Nachmanoff joined in May to direct the third and fourth episodes; David Boyd directed the fifth and sixth episodes; and Clark Johnson, a director on the Marvel Netflix series Luke Cage (2016–2018), also joined in May to direct another two episodes.
By late September 2023, while production was on hold due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, Marvel Studios decided to overhaul the series with a new creative direction. Filming for six episodes was largely completed by then. Marvel Studios had reviewed that footage and decided Born Again "wasn't working". Corman and Ord were let go as head writers, as were the directors for the remainder of the series, and the studio began searching for new writers and directors. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Corman and Ord's episodic take was a large divergence from the Netflix series, including that Cox did not appear in costume as Daredevil until the fourth episode. Marvel planned to retain some elements that had been shot, add new serialized elements, and move closer to the tone of the Netflix series. Corman and Ord were expected to still be credited as executive producers. Cox and D'Onofrio had not been convinced that the original approach was working, with Cox saying it was confusing how Born Again was not a direct continuation of the Netflix series or a complete reboot. Brad Winderbaum, the head of streaming, television, and animation at Marvel Studios, said the studio believed they could "play it loose" with the history of Daredevil but when they reviewed what had been shot so far they realized that they would have to either fully embrace the Netflix series or start over fresh. D'Onofrio said it was Feige in particular who listened to him and Cox when the pair expressed their concerns about the project.
Dario Scardapane, a writer on Netflix's Daredevil spin-off series The Punisher (2017–2019), was hired to serve as showrunner for Born Again in October 2023. This came after Marvel changed its approach to television production to have more traditional showrunners rather than head writers. Filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, who previously worked on the Marvel Studios series Moon Knight (2022) and the second season of Loki (2023), were hired to direct the remaining episodes of the first season. Soon after Scardapane joined, the creative team decided that Born Again should harken back to the tone of the Netflix series and continue storylines from it, rather than be a complete reset. Cox said there was a "fine balance to strike" with this approach, but thought the new creative direction had a good reason for "remaking it" while still being familiar to what came before. In November 2023, Benson and Moorhead said they were reviewing the existing footage and looking to prior Daredevil content, including the Netflix series, to inform the foundation of their direction. They said they were fans of Miller's "Born Again" run, and Benson said he was a fan of Daredevil as a child despite not being "a huge comic book guy". The duo said this was their first MCU project where they were able to find their footing early on after being "thrown in the deep end" with Moon Knight and Loki. They were also more comfortable working with the more grounded style of Born Again, which is similar to their independent films, compared to the "mind-bending sci-fi affairs" of those previous MCU projects. Moorhead described Born Again's stakes as "primal and graspable". D'Onofrio said the directors were Marvel's "hottest talent", and he was confident the series would work after they joined. His friend and Moon Knight co-star Ethan Hawke told D'Onofrio about his positive experience working with the pair, and D'Onofrio was also a fan of their work on Loki, particularly how they handled violence.
Three new episodes were written, including a new pilot episode, as well as additional scenes for the previously shot episodes. Cox confirmed in May 2024 that nine episodes had been filmed, which Feige said was the first season of Born Again. Cuesta, Nachmanoff, and Boyd were re-confirmed to be credited directors for the series in August 2024. Some of their episodes had "some rejiggering, and [new] framing, and bookends" added while others were left "100% intact". Nachmanoff and Boyd returned to film new footage for the existing episodes and assisted with blending the style of the original episodes with Benson and Moorhead's new material. Cox said the new version of the series was more in line with the Netflix series, while D'Onofrio said he and others who worked on the previous version were pleased with the new iteration.
Also in August 2024, Feige announced that a second season was planned; with the creative overhaul, it was decided that the planned 18-episode season would be split into two, nine-episode seasons. In February 2025, Scardapane, Benson, and Moorhead were confirmed to be returning for the second season, and Scardapane described its production as a "better-oiled machine". He said the second season would just be eight episodes. Executive producers include Marvel Studios' Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Winderbaum, and Sana Amanat, alongside Scardapane, Benson, and Moorhead. Additional executive producers for the first season include Marvel Studios' Gary as well as Corman and Ord. Scardapane, Corman, and Ord are credited as the series' creators. The series is released under Marvel Studios' "Marvel Television" label.
Winderbaum said the series could continue beyond the second season, and Marvel Studios was open to bringing back more elements from Daredevil and the other Marvel Netflix series such as Elektra Natchios, the Hand, and the other members of the Defenders team.
The initial take on the series was described as a legal procedural. Cox said it was dark but not as gory as the Netflix series. He wanted to take what worked from Daredevil and broaden it for Born Again to appeal to a younger audience. Feige said the studio was hoping to experiment with more episodic, "self-contained" episodes, unlike some of their Phase Four series that had a larger story split across multiple episodes. According to Cox, early discussions for the series were about "reinvent[ing] the whole thing" and portraying Murdock as a different person from the one seen in the Netflix series. Murdock's friends Foggy Nelson and Karen Page were largely not acknowledged in this version. Amanat said the creative team struggled to incorporate them into the story, but Cox said there were discussions to do some "cool stuff" with them in the future.
Following the creative overhaul, serialized elements were set to be added. Scardapane said several elements in the original version worked well, but he felt there were storylines that needed to be added along with context from the Netflix series. His pilot acts as a bridge between the Netflix series and Born Again, beginning a few years after the end of Daredevil with Murdock, Nelson, and Page running their law firm and having a "pretty good rhythm" together. Winderbaum said Marvel Studios' approach to connecting Born Again with the Netflix series after the creative overhaul was influenced by how Loki and the animated series X-Men '97 (2024–present) honored prior iterations of their characters to establish new storylines. The cast said the events of the Netflix series were part of their characters' histories, and there are some new storylines that build on the original's events, but they did not want to dwell too much on past events or alienate new viewers who did not watch the Netflix series. Cox praised Scardapane's balance between respecting the Netflix series and not relying on that history too much. Co-star Jon Bernthal said any large diversions to the characters from the past were done for a reason, not simply for the sake of trying a different idea. Some of Scardapane's early ideas for the series were turned down due to Marvel Studios' larger plans for the MCU, but he otherwise had "leeway" to tell a specific Daredevil story. The character's appearances in Daredevil, No Way Home, and the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) are part of his history, but the series does not lean into all of those events. Scardapane said Marvel had "moved Matt through other corners of the MCU, and now he's back in his own story", which has a more serious tone.
Describing some of Born Again's differences from the Netflix series, Scardapane said the new series would have more fun character moments and "a lot less navel-gazing" than the original. He felt that series had been at its worst when featuring "two characters in a room talking about what a hero is" and was more interested in showing the characters doing things. Scardapane described Born Again as a "New York crime story", compared to the noir tone of the original series, taking inspiration from the series The Sopranos (1999–2007), the film King of New York (1990), and other crime media from the 1990s. Winderbaum likened Born Again to the series Game of Thrones (2011–2019) because it features "multiple factions [in New York City] vying for power in really complex ways". Another difference from Daredevil is the pace of episodes, with Scardapane explaining that there was an edict for the Marvel Netflix series to feature longer character scenes between their action sequences. This was not a requirement for Born Again which allowed the creative team to give it a pace and scope that the Netflix series were unable to. D'Onofrio said Born Again would have a similar tone and feel to the Disney+ series Echo (2024), and Scardapane said it would be darker than Daredevil which he felt only had some dark elements. Within the MCU, the first season is set after Echo. The first episode begins in late 2025, before jumping ahead a year to late 2026. The season continues into early 2027, and shows New Year's Eve and Saint Patrick's Day celebrations.
Despite using the Born Again subtitle, the series does not directly adapt that storyline or others from the comics. It also does not incorporate any of the planned material for the fourth season of Daredevil. At the beginning of Born Again, Murdock has not been Daredevil for a year after a "line was crossed", when Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter / Bullseye kills Nelson and Murdock tries to kill Dex in return. Amanat believed killing Nelson, who is Murdock's moral compass, was "the only thing that made sense" when telling a story about Murdock starting a new life without being Daredevil. Cox felt Nelson's death was an appropriate way to start the series, believing the new story needed to be "big, brave, and bold" and "shake things up" from the original. The series sees Fisk being elected mayor of New York City, after learning of the need for a strong candidate in the post-credits scene of Echo. Scardapane said the series was a "two-hander", exploring both Murdock and Fisk. Though Fisk is the "prime villain", the series features other antagonists who Scardapane said would be "piling up" as the story continues. These include the serial killer Muse, whose storyline continues into the second season.
Starring in the first season are Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin, Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Wilson Bethel as Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter / Bullseye, Zabryna Guevara as Sheila Rivera, Nikki M. James as Kirsten McDuffie, Genneya Walton as BB Urich, Arty Froushan as Buck Cashman, Clark Johnson as Cherry, Michael Gandolfini as Daniel Blake, Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk, Kamar de los Reyes as Hector Ayala / White Tiger, Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle / Punisher, Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan, and Tony Dalton as Jack Duquesne / Swordsman. Before the creative overhaul, cast members from the Netflix series beyond Cox, D'Onofrio, and Bernthal were not expected to reprise their roles, and Sandrine Holt was cast to replace Zurer as Vanessa. Zurer was brought back after the overhaul, along with Woll, Henson, and Bethel.
Returning for the second season are Cox, D'Onofrio, Woll, Henson, Walton, Johnson, and Gandolfini.
Emily Gunshor was the costume designer for the series, and Michael Shaw was the production designer. Marvel Studios' head of visual development Ryan Meinerding once again designed the Daredevil suit for Born Again, after doing so for the Netflix series. The suit in Born Again has a darker tone of red to reflect Murdock's evolution, along with black detailing and added texture which was described as less "shiny" than the suit in the Netflix series.
Filming for the first season occurred at Silvercup Studios East in Queens, with location work throughout New York. Pedro Gómez Millán and Hillary Fyfe Spera served as cinematographers. Production on the first season was halted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.
Gong Myung Lee is the series' visual effects supervisor, with visual effects for the first season provided by Rise FX, FOLKS, Phosphene, Powerhouse VFX, Ghost VFX, Soho VFX, Cantina Creative, Anibrain, Base FX, SDFX, and The Third Floor, Inc.
In July 2024, the Newton Brothers were revealed to be composing music for the series. They previously composed the score for X-Men '97. The pair expressed their love for the Daredevil comics and for the main theme from the original Daredevil series, which was briefly re-used for Daredevil's appearances in She-Hulk and the Disney+ animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2025–present). The Newton Brothers' main theme for Born Again incorporates the Daredevil theme, originally composed by John Paesano and Braden Kimball. It was released as a digital single by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music on March 4, 2025. The score for season one will be released digitally by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music in two volumes: music from the first four episodes was released on March 28, 2025, with a second volume expected to be released in late April.
Daredevil: Born Again premiered on Disney+ on March 4, 2025, with its first two episodes. The first season will consist of nine episodes. The season is part of Phase Five of the MCU, and is being released under Marvel Studios' "Marvel Television" label.
The second season is set to premiere in early-to-mid 2026, and will consist of eight episodes. It will be part of Phase Six of the MCU. Winderbaum hoped that future seasons could be released annually.
The two-episode premiere received 7.5 million views on Disney+ in its first five days according to Disney; the company defines a view as total stream time divided by runtime. This was the biggest debut on Disney+ for 2025 at that point, and was compared to the two-episode debut of fellow MCU Disney+ series Agatha All Along (2024) which had 9.3 million views within its first seven days of streaming.
For the first season, review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 87% approval score with an average rating of 7.65/10, based on 182 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Resurrecting Charlie Cox's Daredevil with his virtues intact—namely Vincent D'Onofrio as his terrifying adversary—Born Again is an ambitious and at times ungainly crime saga that marks a mature tonal shift for the MCU." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 69 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Critics overall found the season to have exceeded expectations and highlighted the character-driven storytelling and performances, particularly those of Cox and D'Onofrio. Some were unsure whether it was better or worse than the original Daredevil series, which received more positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes.
In February 2025, Bernthal was revealed to be reprising his role as Frank Castle / Punisher in an untitled television special, part of the Marvel Studios Special Presentations banner. Reinaldo Marcus Green was set to direct the special and co-write it with Bernthal. The special was conceived during filming for the first season of Born Again, and will be released on Disney+ in 2026 alongside the second season of the series.