This morning Marvel gave us ours the first, long-awaited look on Daredevil: Rebornhis revival/sequel to Netflix’s favorite series as a new chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s full of rage and brutality, but it’s also full of intriguing hints about who’s coming back from the original series, who’s being added to the MCU this time around, and which comics are inspiring Matt Murdock’s return to Avengers action. Let’s see who’s who, shall we?
The Dream Team is back
At the start of the trailer, framed around a tense (but not entirely awkward) reunion between Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock, we get confirmation that it’s been a while since the Netflix event Daredevilseries i the long-awaited confirmation yes, at least for now, things are looking good between the show’s returning trio: Matt, his partner in non-crime Foggy Nelson, and, of course, Karen Page. In the first versions of the return of the series, neither Deborah Ann Woll nor Elden Henson were supposed to appear. We’re glad they’re finally back, but they’re also not in this trailer so much… and it could hint at some bad things to come, especially as we deal with Matt Murdock retiring from the vigilante world when the series begins.
Mayor Fish
A lot has changed for Matt, but a lot has changed for Fisk as well, as we see him embrace a big new role as The mayor of New York. This is also a long time coming: the MCU started setting up this arc for Fisk after his return to the MCU in the falcon’s eye during post credits of Echoand now we will be able to see it flourish Born again. The plot that places Fisk at the top of the political chain comes from recent Marvel Comics history—Fisk became mayor during a contest between Charles Soule and Stefano Landini Daredevil at the end of 2017, after the events of Secret Empire saw him play a major role in protecting the citizens of New York after Hydra sealed Manhattan in a Darkforce energy bubble during its plot to take over America.
In the comics, Fisk ran as an independent candidate (and rigged the vote even with his public support running on an anti-revenge platform), and eventually even chose Matt to act as deputy mayor, who used the position to try to undermine Fisk and eventually confronting him as Daredevil, hoping to catch him in the act and rob him of his newfound power. Fisk actually stayed on as mayor of New York for a while — he just stepped down during the climax of the 2022 series of events. Devil’s reignafter he tried to ban the Avengers completely in New York and teamed up with the Purple Man to try to force the city to re-elect him as mayor, and also rediscovered his lost knowledge of Daredevil’s alter ego. After being stopped by Matt and Elektra (both acting as Daredevil at the time), Fisk was briefly imprisoned, allowing Luke Cage to win the mayoral election.
A known enemy…
During the middle trailer, we get a brief and intriguing glimpse of at least one returning villain from the Netflix series outside of Fisk himself: Wilson Bethel’s Bullseye. We see him here being led through a prison by armed guards, when we last saw him on the Netflix show. Ben Poindexter was arrested after going rogue from his time as Fisk’s personal assassin, which led him to attempt to kill Fisk and his wife Vanessa during their wedding. Incapacitated by Daredevil and Fisk working together, Poindexter was paralyzed during the attack, leading him to accept mysterious experimental spinal surgery that also seemingly gave him his enhanced archer abilities from the comics. With him awake and walking around here, it seems the risky operation paid off.
And the new one?
But we also have new villains making their debut. The handiwork of one in particular is glimpsed throughout the trailer, and we get a brief glimpse of it in action: this speckled white mystery is Muse. Created by the aforementioned Soule and artist Ron Garney in 2016, Muse—whose identity was never actually revealed—was a mutated serial killer who graphically murdered targets before depicting them in gruesome pieces of performance art. In the comics, he evaded arrest several times before eventually escaping from prison during Fisk’s term as mayor, before finally being defeated by Daredevil and Blindspot (who had previously been blinded by Muse), leading him to commit suicide.
One thing that is seemingly unclear here in terms of what will appear Born again is Muse’s power. In the comics, he has superhuman strength and speed, as well as a strange sensory absorption effect: Muse’s body can effectively drown out sensory information around him, making him nearly imperceptible even to Daredevil’s enhanced senses.
Frenemies Old and New
The trailer also gives us a few more shots of returning faces from the Netflix series in the form of Ayelet Zurer, who plays Fisk’s now-wife Vanessa (Sandrine Holt was previously tapped to take on the role, previously Born againcreative reboot) and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher literally bury the hatchet with Matt. The second season of Frank’s own spinoff series ended with him fully embracing the mantle of the Punisher, turning down a contract to do dirty work for the CIA to take his violent campaign against the criminal underworld in a new direction. It remains to be seen where he and Matt will reunite, but what about the Punisher in a world where Daredevil has temporarily retired?
A new hero rises
Another very interesting new character we see in the trailer is the man who puts on the famous white mask: this is Hector Ayala, also known as the superhero White Tiger. Played by Kamar de los Reyes in his final role before his death in 2023, Ayala is the first of several characters to take up the mantle of the White Tiger in Marvel Comics, a legacy that also included his youngest sister, Ava. First appearing in 1975, White Tiger gains superhuman power through an amulet he wears around his neck, summoning the powers of the great tiger god, allowing him access to superhuman strength and agility, as well as accelerated healing and enhanced senses.
new suit(s)
One of the final and most intriguing moments we see in the trailer is Matt looking over Daredevil’s full array of masks. While we see him wearing an updated version of his iconic red suit throughout the trailer, the various hoods here suggest a litany of throwbacks to Daredevil’s comic book history. The most obvious is the yellow mask from the suit we saw him in in his appearance She-Hulkinspired by the first costume Daredevil wears in the comics, but there are also two red cows here, which appear to be both from his earlier versions of his current suit seen throughout the Netflix series.
The black cowl could be a reference to one of the two suits Daredevil has worn in the comics: his armor first worn after the battle with the Wild Pack, or his all-black “Shadowlands” suit, since Matt took over the Hand of the ninja clan and found has been corrupted by his mysterious patron demon, the Beast. The most interesting addition here is the one on the left, a silver and white mask that has only one similar parallel in the comics: during the 2023 reboot. Daredevil with creative team Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder, Matt began working as a priest, eventually teaming up with Doctor Strange to face his inner demons. The end result was a “purified” all-white version of his regular suit.
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