Daredevil: Born Again season 1

Cast and characters

Main

Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil:A blind lawyer with superhuman senses from Hell's Kitchen, New York, who leads a double life as a masked vigilante. At the start of the season, Murdock focuses on being a lawyer due to the collateral damage that comes with being a vigilante and concerns about how effective that approach has been. Eli D. Goss guest stars as a young Murdock.

Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin:A powerful businessman and crime lord, who becomes the mayor of New York City. D'Onofrio said the tone for his character in the Disney+ series Echo (2024) would continue in Born Again, which he believed was how the character was best portrayed. The season sees Fisk amassing power and "flexing his darkness" to "basically gaslight a city, and then eventually a country, and then eventually a world".

Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn:A therapist and Murdock's love interest. She and Murdock have differing views on vigilantism which Cox said "leads to some poignant conversations" between the couple.

Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page:A former reporter and Murdock's friend and partner at the Nelson, Murdock & Page law firm. Because it had been years since she last played the character in Daredevil (2015–2018), Woll was concerned about her performance feeling like an impression of herself. However, she found her return to be natural given the rapport she has with Cox and Elden Henson. Page was not originally planned to be included in the series and was only added after it underwent a creative overhaul. Showrunner Dario Scardapane said the character was not in the season as much as he would have liked and would have a larger role in future seasons.

Elden Henson as Franklin "Foggy" Nelson:Murdock's best friend and law partner, who is killed at the start of the series. Similar to Woll, Henson said returning to the role after seven years felt natural and not like he was doing an impression of himself. Cox described Nelson as "the heartbeat" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and said his death was "really hard".

Wilson Bethel as Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter / Bullseye:A psychopathic assassin and former FBI agent who is a highly skilled marksman capable of using almost any object as a lethal projectile. After Dex masqueraded as Daredevil for Fisk in Daredevil, Fisk broke Dex's back and he underwent surgery using the metal alloy Cogmium, which enhanced his body.

Recurring

Patrick Murney as Luca: A criminal and leader of one of the Five Families

Ruibo Qian as Angie Kim: An NYPD detective. Qian previously played Mei in the first season of Marvel's Netflix television series Jessica Jones (2015).

Hamish Allan-Headley as Connor Powell: A corrupt NYPD officer and a member of Fisk's Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF). His first name was confirmed offscreen.

Hunter Doohan as Bastian Cooper / Muse: A masked serial killer who makes art with the blood of his victims. He is a patient of, and obsessed with, Glenn.

Michael Gaston as Gallo: The NYPD Commissioner. Gaston previously played Gerald Sharpe in the seventh season of the Marvel Television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2020).

Ashley Marie Ortiz as Soledad Ayala: Hector's wife

Camila Rodriguez as Angela del Toro: Hector Ayala's niece

Jeremy Isaiah Earl as Cole North: An NYPD sergeant from Chicago and a member of the AVTF

Guest

Cillian O'Sullivan as Devlin: A criminal behind a hijacking and later a bank robbery

Gino Anthony Pesi as Viktor: A criminal and leader of one of the Five Families

Susan Varon as Josie: The owner of Josie's Bar

John Benjamin Hickey as Benjamin Hochberg: The New York City district attorney. Hickey previously played Peter Lyonne in the third season of Jessica Jones (2019).

Andrew Polk as Fitzgerald "Jerry" Cooper: A New York City judge. Polk previously played Morty Bennett in the first season of The Punisher (2017).

Nick Jordan as Nicky Torres: An informant who was accosted by corrupt NYPD officers

Jefferson Cox as Kel Shanahan: A corrupt NYPD officer who is accidentally killed while fighting Ayala

Elizabeth A. Davis as Sofija Ozola: A New York City prosecutor

Charlie Hudson III as Leroy Bradford: A homeless man who commits a petty crime and is represented by Murdock

Lou Taylor Pucci as Adam: An artist who had an affair with Vanessa and is taken captive by Fisk

Jimmy Palumbo as Johnny Santini: A New York City Department of Sanitation worker

Daniel Gerroll as Arthur Sledge: A socialite and Artemis's husband

Katherine LaNasa as Artemis Sledge: A socialite and the wife of Arthur Sledge

Production

Development

A reboot of Marvel's Netflix television series Daredevil (2015–2018) was reported to be in development with Marvel Studios in March 2022. 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. At San Diego Comic-Con that July, the series was announced as Daredevil: Born Again and was revealed to have 18 episodes for its first season. 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. Actor Tom Hiddleston, who portrays Loki in the MCU and is a close friend of star Charlie Cox, was also hired to direct an episode in the later half of the season.

By late September 2023, after six episodes had been filmed, Marvel Studios decided to overhaul the series with a new creative direction. Corman and Ord were let go as head writers, as were directors for the remaining episodes. Marvel planned to retain some elements that had been shot, add new serialized elements, and move closer to the tone of the Netflix series. The creative team also decided to connect the new series to the original series more directly than had been planned. Cox said it was confusing that 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, wanting to keep Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio but otherwise "reset" to avoid alienating new viewers. The studio realized they had to either fully embrace the Netflix series or start over fresh. Dario Scardapane, a writer on Netflix's Daredevil spin-off series The Punisher (2017–2019), was hired as showrunner in October 2023. 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.

A new pilot episode, two other new episodes, and new scenes for the existing episodes were written. Cox confirmed in May 2024 that nine episodes had been filmed. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in August that these were the first season of Born Again and a second season was planned; with the creative overhaul, the planned 18-episode season had been split into two seasons, with the second ultimately having eight episodes. Also in August, Cuesta, Nachmanoff, and Boyd were re-confirmed to be credited directors. Moorhead said they wanted to "give those directors credit where it's due" despite him and Benson guiding the final edits for all of the episodes. Nachmanoff and Boyd returned to film new footage for the existing episodes and assisted Benson and Moorhead with blending the style of the original episodes with the lead directors' new material. Executive producers included Marvel Studios' Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Winderbaum, Sana Amanat, and Chris Gary, alongside Scardapane, Corman, Ord, Benson, and Moorhead. The series is released under Marvel Studios' "Marvel Television" label.

Writing

Original writers for the series included Corman, Ord, Grainne Godfree, Jill Blankenship, Aisha Porter-Christie, David Feige, Devon Kliger, Thomas Wong, Zachary Reiter, Molly Nussbaum, and Jesse Wigutow. David Feige, Wong, and Reiter are all former lawyers who previously worked on other lawyer-based television series. The initial take on the series was described as a legal procedural that was dark, but not as gory as the Netflix series, and more episodic than other Marvel Studios series with "self-contained" episodes. One planned bottle episode that Wigutow joined the series to work on was centered on Frank Castle / Punisher spending a "narratively... interesting night" with Maya Lopez / Echo. According to Cox, early discussions for the series were about "reinvent[ing] the whole thing" and portraying Matt Murdock / Daredevil as a different person from the one seen in the Netflix series. Murdock's friends Franklin "Foggy" Nelson and Karen Page were largely not acknowledged in this version of the series, with plans for Nelson to be killed off-screen before the events of the first season. Amanat said the creative team were struggling to incorporate the characters into the story, but Cox said there were discussions to do some "cool stuff" with them in the future. The season originally opened with a shot of Murdock, in the Daredevil suit, crying and dropping his mask; this was meant to occur shortly after Nelson's off-screen death to explain why Murdock decided to stop being Daredevil at the start of the series.

Following the creative overhaul, serialized elements were set to be added. Scardapane was joined by writers Heather Bellson and Wigutow, and three new episodes were written: the pilot and the final two episodes of the first season. The pilot acts as a bridge between the Netflix series and Born Again. Scardapane felt the end of the Netflix series—which sees Murdock, Nelson, and Page planning to go into business together again—was a good starting point for Born Again and did not need too much explanation for new viewers. He felt it was important to include Nelson and Page because they are Murdock's "family structure". Nelson also provides comic relief, while Page is "the heart and soul" of the series. Cox explained that a few years have passed since the end of Daredevil, with the characters running their law firm Nelson, Murdock & Page and having a "pretty good rhythm" together. 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. Corman, Ord, Blankenship, David Feige, Godfree, and Wong received credits on the existing six episodes, which were kept largely intact. Winderbaum said test audiences responded well to those episodes and believed this was due to fan appreciation for the characters. Scardapane agreed that several elements in the original version worked well—including Murdock's relationships, balancing his time as a lawyer and vigilante, and the pressures of an antagonist like Kingpin—but he felt there were storylines that needed to be added along with context from the Netflix series. Cox had particularly pushed back against the bank heist episode, "With Interest", feeling the story did not make sense in the modern day and was not "sophisticated enough". However, it was left unchanged and Cox acknowledged that it received positive responses upon release. Scardapane described the season as a "cobbled-together Frankenstein". He hoped the new premiere and finale episodes would give a strong idea of what they wanted the series to be in future seasons.

Casting

Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio were reported in June 2022 to be starring in Born Again, reprising their respective roles of Matt Murdock / Daredevil and Wilson Fisk / Kingpin from Daredevil. Their casting was confirmed a month later at San Diego Comic-Con. Cox was notified by Marvel Studios in early 2022 that they were looking to feature the character in another project following his appearances in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022). He learned that this was Born Again shortly before the Comic-Con announcement.

In December 2022, Michael Gandolfini, Margarita Levieva, and Sandrine Holt were cast in major roles. Gandolfini was reportedly portraying "an ambitious guy from Staten Island" named Liam, while Levieva and Holt were playing love interests for Cox and D'Onofrio, respectively. Holt was cast as Vanessa Fisk, replacing Ayelet Zurer from the original series. Nikki M. James joined the cast by January 2023. In March, Jon Bernthal was revealed to be reprising his role of Frank Castle / Punisher from Daredevil and The Punisher. Bernthal later said he "had to walk away" because he did not agree with where the series was taking Castle and thought it would not appeal to fans, but he eventually decided to return. The Hollywood Reporter said additional Daredevil cast members, such as Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page) and Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), were not expected to return and it was unclear if their characters would appear. Despite Henson not being asked to return, Cox said a cameo appearance for Nelson was planned to "end the link between the shows and give the old fans closure". Also in March, Michael Gaston and Arty Froushan joined the cast, with Froushan in a major role that was reported to be an associate of Fisk's named Harry. Set photos the following month indicated that Harris Yulin was part of the cast. In May, Clark Johnson was revealed to be cast in a recurring role, reportedly named Cherry, in addition to his hiring as a director. In September 2023, a United States Copyright Office filing for the series listed several roles: Levieva as Heather Glenn, Gandolfini as Daniel Blake, James as Kirsten McDuffie, Johnson as Cherry, Froushan as Buck Cashman, Genneya Walton as BB Urich, and Zabryna Guevara as Sheila Rivera. With the death of Kamar de los Reyes in December 2023, he was revealed to have a significant role.

Following the creative overhaul, Woll and Henson were set to reprise their roles as Page and Nelson. Woll was initially hesitant to join the series after feeling hurt that she was not involved in the initial version, but agreed to join after hearing Scardapane's plans for the character. Wilson Bethel also returned as his Daredevil character Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter / Bullseye, reportedly for three episodes. Amanat pushed for Bethel to return, finding the character intriguing and the most appropriate antagonist from the Netflix series to revisit. Guest star Susan Varon also reprised her role of Josie from the Netflix series. It was initially unclear if any of the new Born Again cast members would be retained, though Levieva, Gandolfini, and Froushan were soon reaffirmed to be part of the cast through set photos, as was Bernthal. He said Scardapane and the new creative team were more open to being collaborative about how best to portray Castle. Set photos also revealed that Jeremy Isaiah Earl had been cast as Cole North, and that Zurer would now be reprising her role as Vanessa; she was disappointed with the initial recasting and was pleasantly surprised when she was asked to return following the overhaul. A new character, Adam, was originally written to be a "big hulking bodyguard". Benson and Moorhead decided to cast Lou Taylor Pucci, who does not match that description, after working with him on their film Spring (2014). They said there was a metanarrative to the Born Again casting because they cast Pucci for Spring due to him playing D'Onofrio's son in the film Thumbsucker (2005) and him living with D'Onofrio during production on that film. In August 2024, de los Reyes was reaffirmed to be appearing in the series, portraying the character Hector Ayala / White Tiger. Camila Rodriguez portrays his niece, Angela del Toro.

Design

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. At least five different Daredevil cowls are seen in the season, including an all-white version based on the one first seen in Daredevil vol. 8 #12 (June 2023), the yellow cowl used in She-Hulk, a black cowl, and two red cowls. Dex wears a black and blue tactical suit reminiscent of the costume that was introduced for the character in Daredevil vol. 6 #18 (February 2020). The suit features a holster attached to the chest, and black rings around the neck and shoulders as an homage to the character's "target" emblem in the comics. Comic book artist David Mack provided the art for Muse's murals.

Filming

Principal photography began on March 6, 2023, in the state of New York, under the working title Out the Kitchen. Filming took place in Yonkers outside the city mayor's office from March 7 through March 10. The production then moved to New York City, filming in Harlem on March 13 and 14, and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and at the Manhattan Municipal Building on March 15; Williamsburg was also used as a shooting location for Daredevil. Filming took place at the New York County Courthouse on March 17. Cox described New York City as "number one on the call sheet and the big star here". Shaw said it was important to film in the city because "on the real city streets and locations, you capture the energy of New York and that bleeds into the fabric of the series". The production wanted to explore parts of the city that had not been seen on film before. Filming occurred at 20 Exchange Place in the Financial District for the bottle episode bank heist, which was the same location used for the bank featured in the film Inside Man (2006).

Soundstage work occurred at Silvercup Studios East in Queens. The series' art department built detailed recreations of rooms from Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York City; Shaw said there was something "slightly uncomfortable" about seeing Fisk in rooms that feel like "somebody's grandmother's house". Another set was Muse's lair which Shaw said was "a bit heightened" and very dark. Filming was set to take place at Silvercup on May 8, when picketers participating in the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike prevented filming from occurring. Production was planned to resume the following day. Because of the strike, Corman and Ord were unable to be on set. After further picketing on May 10 at the series' set in Brooklyn once again shut down filming, production was paused for the remainder of the week. Additional filming shutdowns because of picketing occurred in early June at Silvercup, before production was suspended on June 14 until after the strike's conclusion. Filming was originally expected to last for eight months. The last scene filmed before the shutdown was Castle's introduction. Cox was told that this scene was well received by executives and was one of the reasons that they decided to overhaul the series. He was grateful to Bernthal, who wrote much of the scene and moved it in a direction that was closer to the original series, for "potentially leading us back on track".

Six episodes were largely filmed before the shutdown, with Cuesta directing the first two episodes, Nachmanoff directing the third and fourth, and Boyd directing the fifth and sixth. Hillary Fyfe Spera and Pedro Gómez Millán were the cinematographers. The series was shot on Arri Alexa 35 cameras with Panavision G-series anamorphic lenses. Spera said they wanted to portray New York as "textured and grimy but also beautiful", taking inspiration from 1970s films such as The French Connection (1971), Klute (1971), Mean Streets (1973), and Taxi Driver (1976), as well as photographers Saul Leiter and Robert Frank. The third episode was conceived as a "day in the life" episode with no time jumps between scenes. Transitions were designed to show each scene happening straight after the previous one. Nachmanoff compared this to the film Birdman (2014), although unlike that film the episode was not intended to look like it was filmed in a single take. Following the creative overhaul, the directors for the remainder of the series were let go. Johnson had been hired to direct two of those episodes. Benson and Moorhead were set to direct the new episodes, with Nachmanoff and Boyd returning to assist them. Philip Silvera, a stunt coordinator on the Netflix series, was hired as stunt coordinator and second unit director for the new episodes, with Dave Macomber also taking on those roles for the series.

Post-production

Editors for the season included Cedric Nairn-Smith, Melissa Lawson Cheung, and Stephanie Filo. Nairn-Smith previously worked on Moon Knight and the Marvel Studios series Ironheart (2025), while Cheung worked on the Marvel Studios series Secret Invasion (2023) as well as The Marvels. Following the creative overhaul, some of the episodes filmed before had "some rejiggering, and [new] framing, and bookends" added, and some scenes were moved to different episodes, but some of the original episodes were left "100% intact". For example, Castle's introduction in the new fourth episode was originally filmed by Boyd before the overhaul to appear in the original fifth or sixth episode. The new creative team decided to move it to the earlier episode. Bernthal was not available to reshoot the scene so Nachmanoff filmed some additional material with Cox that was used to rework the scene for its new position. Nachmanoff believed the fifth episode, the bottle episode bank heist, was the only one kept fully intact. He praised the editors for making the season feel "seamless" when combining material that was filmed before and after the creative overhaul. The completed fourth episode, which was originally intended to be the third, no longer has the "day in the life" style that it was initially conceived with but does retain some of the unique transitions between scenes. The second episode begins with a dedication to de los Reyes.

Gong Myung Lee is the series' visual effects supervisor, with visual effects provided by Rise FX, FOLKS, Phosphene, Powerhouse VFX, Ghost VFX, Soho VFX, Cantina Creative, Anibrain, Base FX, SDFX, and The Third Floor, Inc.

Music

In July 2024, the Newton Brothers were revealed to be composing music for the series. Their main theme incorporates the Daredevil theme by John Paesano and Braden Kimball, and was released as a digital single by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music on March 4, 2025. The composers seemingly acknowledged a similarity between a musical idea in the finale and the main theme of the MCU Spider-Man films in a social media post that they later deleted. Scardapane was surprised by the potential Spider-Man connection and was uncertain about any intentions Marvel Studios had regarding it. The season's score was released digitally by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music in two volumes: music from the first four episodes was released on March 28, and music for the other five episodes was released on April 18.

Marketing

Cox and D'Onofrio promoted the series at Disney's May 2024 upfront presentation, where the release month was announced and the first trailer was shown. The pair again promoted the series and showed a trailer at Disney's D23 convention that August, alongside Feige, Bernthal, Woll, and Henson. Writers at Deadline Hollywood and TheWrap all felt the D23 trailer was more cinematic than the Netflix series and more mature than most Disney+ series. They also compared a confrontation between Murdock and Fisk in the trailer to the crime film Heat (1995). Following online leaks of the D23 footage, Marvel released an official look at Daredevil in his red costume within their video celebrating the company's 85th anniversary. In October 2024, Marvel Comics announced a new publishing line titled Marvel Premier Collection, which consists of new paperback editions of popular comic book runs that are considered to be good starting points for new readers. A reprint of the "Born Again" comic was released in February 2025, with a new introduction from Miller and a foreword by Cox.

A teaser trailer was released on January 15, 2025. It was originally scheduled to be released two days earlier, but was postponed because of the 2025 Southern California wildfires. Commentary on the trailer focused on the return of characters from the Netflix series and on its brutal, violent action. Andy Behbakht at Screen Rant said the dark and violent action sequences quelled some concerns that the series would not retain those elements from the Netflix series in its move to Disney+. He also highlighted the reveal that Murdock is no longer a vigilante at the start of the new series.

Release

The first season of Daredevil: Born Again premiered on Disney+ on March 4, 2025, with its first two episodes. The other seven episodes were released through April 15. The series was originally scheduled to debut in early 2024, but was removed from Marvel Studios' release schedule in September 2023 after filming was suspended by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. The next month, a copyright filing for the first episode indicated an approximate release in January 2025. The March 2025 debut was announced in May 2024. A red carpet premiere event was held on February 24 at the Hudson Theater in New York City, where the first two episodes were screened. The season is part of Phase Five of the MCU, and was released under Marvel Studios' "Marvel Television" label.

Reception

Viewership

Screen Engine/ASI, which tracks the top ten most-mentioned entertainment options through a survey of over 1,000 consumers, reported that Daredevil: Born Again was the fourth most-mentioned title from March 1–7 with 1.9% of all mentions. Market research company Parrot Analytics, which looks at consumer engagement in consumer research, streaming, downloads, and on social media, reported it experienced high demand in Canada following its premiere on Disney+ in early March. The series was 44.4 times more in demand than the average TV series in Canada during the week of March 3–9. This performance placed it at No. 2 on the digital originals chart, behind Prime Video's Invincible. The demand for Daredevil: Born Again was also higher than that of the original Marvel's Daredevil series, which ranked No. 5 with a demand average of 35.3. Screen Engine/ASI later announced that the series was the sixth most-mentioned title from March 8–14 with 1.7% of all mentions. Daredevil: Born Again was among the most in-demand series debuts and superhero series of 2025, according to Parrot Analytics.

Whip Media, which tracks viewership data for the more than 25 million worldwide users of its TV Time app, said that Daredevil: Born Again secured a spot in the top three most-streamed original series in the U.S. for the week ending March 9–23. The series subsequently reached the first place from the week ending April 13–20. The streaming aggregator Reelgood, which tracks real-time data from 20 million U.S. users for original and acquired content across SVOD and AVOD services, announced that it was one of the ten most-streamed shows in the U.S. from March 5 to April 23. JustWatch, a guide to streaming content with access to data from more than 45 million users around the world, stated that it was among the top ten most-streamed series in the U.S. from March 3 to April 20. Born Again was also one of the ten most-streamed shows in Canada from March 3–9, according to JustWatch.

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. Luminate, which measures streaming performance in the United States using viewership data, audience engagement metrics, and content reach across multiple platforms, announced that Born Again recorded 136 million minutes of watch time on its first day. Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on U.S. television screens, estimated that Born Again drew 5.8 million U.S. viewers in its first 35 days, making it one of the most popular shows of the 2024–2025 season. Nielsen's multiplatform figures account for 35 days of viewing across linear television and streaming; however, since Born Again premiered on March 4, it had significantly less time to accumulate viewership before the report's early April cutoff date. Luminate subsequently reported that the first season of Born Again amassed 2.8 million views and was streamed for 1.3 billion minutes during the first half of 2026.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 224 critics gave the season a positive review, and the average of rated reviews was 7.70 out of 10. The 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 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Critics said the season exceeded expectations and highlighted the character-driven storytelling and performances, particularly those of Cox and D'Onofrio. There were mixed feelings on how it compares to the original Daredevil series, and many critics acknowledged that the seams of the creative overhaul are visible.

Aramide Tinubu at Variety called the season "a brilliantly detailed continuation" of Daredevil and "wonderfully complex" that "takes a sledgehammer to its former Netflix world, allowing the titular character and those orbiting him to transform under the weight and pain of time". Tinubu enjoyed the season's exploration of how fast corruption spreads within political institutions and concluded that the season was "a breathtaking example of what it means to revisit a known hero while offering him new reasons to fight for justice". Amon Warmann writing for Empire felt Born Again "retains much of what was great about that Netflix run[...] and adds in just enough fresh elements to keep things interesting". He praised Cox and D'Onofrio, calling them "two of the best casting decisions in Marvel history", and enjoyed Murdock's courtroom scenes as well as Fisk's marital issues storyline, noting it was an unexpected one for a series like Born Again. The season's focus on the people of New York was also a highlight, as was the action sequences and the audio and visual techniques used to portray Murdock's heightened senses, which were "incredibly effective". Warmann gave the season 4 out of 5 stars.

The Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han said, "The adherence to formula that makes Born Again so satisfying at its best is also what ultimately keeps it feeling trapped in amber." She praised the performances of Cox and D'Onofrio and enjoyed some of the new cast who had "strong impressions right off the bat" but ultimately grew "less fleshed-out" as the season progressed, and also enjoyed the inclusion of MCU characters, whose appearances served as a "reminder of how expansive this cinematic universe can be, not how oppressively interconnected it's become". Han believed the action sequences lacked "novelty", but offered a sense of nostalgia, and some storylines such as The BB Report segments and the corruption "[came] off more like self-conscious affectations meant to give Born Again a grown-and-gritty sheen rather than serious attempts to engage with larger themes", ultimately leading to few surprises and missed opportunities in the season. Reviewing the season for RogerEbert.com, Cristina Escobar enjoyed the season as a courtroom drama and its "layering of moral complexity" elevated the season. She also liked the use of the various villains besides Fisk, as it created a "less predictable" season, making it "hard to guess where an individual plotline [were] going". Escobar had issues with the pacing of the season, noting it took "a lot of time getting to its central premise", and was disappointed in the writing for Glenn as Murdock's love interest, which made her come across "an easily manipulated nag rather than an intelligent actor in her own right". She concluded that the "real allure" of the season was its "call to arms against tyranny" working as "an imperfect interrogation of our current moment".

Accolades

D'Onofrio and Woll were named as honorable mentions for TVLine's "Performer of the Week", respectively for the season premiere and the season finale. Matt Webb Mitovich highlighted D'Onofrio's performance in the premiere's meeting between Fisk and Murdock, saying he "slipp[ed] back into the Fisk voice and composure he crafted 10 years ago", as well as Woll's different performances opposite Cox and Bernthal in the finale.