Daredevil: Born Again season 2

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. Murdock forms a resistance group during the season to fight back against Wilson Fisk and his anti-vigilante agenda. Executive producer Brad Winderbaum described Murdock as a revolutionary and a rebel in the season, with the character "go[ing] up against the power of the city".

Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin:A powerful businessman and crime lord who is the mayor of New York City. Winderbaum said Fisk acts like a king when he takes over as mayor, and that "puts him in a new class of power players on the international stage". Executive producer Sana Amanat said Fisk's anti-vigilante "Safer Streets Initiative" is everything he hoped to achieve and the season explores whether that is enough for him. D'Onofrio said the season showed Fisk at his most human, and thought it was scary to show that the character is "just like you or I, but he's very, very dangerous." D'Onofrio continued wearing a fat suit to portray the character, as he had done since appearing in the Marvel Studios series Hawkeye (2021). However, for the boxing match, he wanted to be able to show some of his arms and shoulders, believing it would be weird to have Fisk fighting in long sleeves. D'Onofrio then began working out his upper body to grow it a few more inches to match the girth of the fat suit at his waist.

Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page:A former reporter, Murdock's friend and former partner at the law firm Nelson, Murdock & Page. Cox said Karen would be part of Murdock's resistance group during the season, and the pair would be working at night to "find a crack in the armor" while spending their days together waiting, with a rekindled romance between the two. Showrunner Dario Scardapane said Page's evolution is in line with her history in Marvel's Netflix television series Daredevil (2015–2018). He and Woll did not want her to be depicted as a sidekick or girlfriend, with Scardapane describing Page as "somebody who both mirrors and pushes Murdock—not always in the best way".

Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn:A therapist and Murdock's ex-girlfriend who is Fisk's Mental Health Commissioner. Levieva said that the season sees Glenn "struggling with the aftereffects" of Muse's attack on her in the first season, stating that Glenn is "doing her best to put up a front" while focusing on her work as a therapist, which has become her "biggest and only relationship" following her breakup with Murdock. She ultimately embraces the idea of Muse, putting on his mask at the end of the season.

Recurring

Hamish Allan-Headley as Connor Powell: A corrupt NYPD officer and the leader of Fisk's Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF)

John Benjamin Hickey as Benjamin Hochberg: The New York City district attorney

Yorgos Karamihos as Christofi Savva: The first mate of the Northern Star

Annie Parisse as Ariana Iacovou: A restaurant owner helping victims of the AVTF

Lenny Platt as Juan Gomez: The Lieutenant Governor of New York

Bartley Booz as a seminarian at Clinton Church

Jeremy Isaiah Earl as Cole North: An NYPD sergeant from Chicago and a member of the AVTF who has recovered from the explosion that destroyed Murdock's apartment in the first season

Ruibo Qian as Angie Kim: An NYPD detective helping the resistance

Camila Rodriguez as Angela del Toro / White Tiger:A teenage girl who joins Murdock's resistance and takes on the mantle of White Tiger from her vigilante uncle Hector Ayala, who was assassinated by Cole North in the first season. She uses the mystical Amulet of Power that belonged to her uncle, which grants her superhuman abilities.

Ashley Marie Ortiz as Soledad Ayala: Angela's aunt and wife of the deceased Hector

Felix Torrez-Ponce as Alan Saunders: A member of the AVTF who wants to help the resistance

Roberto Lopez as Berto: The owner of a bodega who was taken prisoner by the AVTF

Guest

Ty Jones as Alan Steverud: The Attorney General of New York

Thomas Cokenias as Achilleo Kyriaco: The captain of the Northern Star

Susan Varon as Josie: The former owner of Josie's Bar in Hell's Kitchen

Bobby Hernandez as Mike "Matterhorn" Melendez: A boxer who fights Fisk

Elizabeth Ward Land as Judy Burch: An art gallery director who worked with Vanessa

Pej Vahdat as Arash Merati: A surgeon who operates on Vanessa

Nathan Wallace as Lionel "Ray" McCoy: Nelson's childhood neighbor and bully who later becomes a client of him and Murdock

Amy Carlson as Gloria Blake: Daniel's mother

Annabelle and Isabella Ivlev as Danielle: Jessica Jones and Luke Cage's daughter

Royce Johnson as Brett Mahoney: An NYPD Chief of Detectives and longtime ally of Murdock, Page and Nelson

Geoffrey Cantor as Mitchell Ellison: The editor-in-chief of the New York Bulletin

Mike Colter as Luke Cage: A former convict with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin who is Danielle's father and has done work overseas for Mr. Charles

Additionally, NY1 newscaster Annika Pergament appears as herself, and the character Bastian Cooper / Muse appears as a hallucination seen by Glenn. The season features photographs of Vondie Curtis-Hall's Daredevil character Ben Urich, as well as archive footage from that series of Skylar Gaertner as a young Murdock and John Patrick Hayden as his father "Battlin" Jack Murdock.

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. 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 the series' remaining directors. 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 previously been planned. Dario Scardapane, a writer on Netflix's Daredevil spin-off series The Punisher (2017–2019), was hired as showrunner for Born Again 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.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in August 2024 that nine episodes had been completed that would make up 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, nine-episode seasons. In February 2025, Scardapane, Benson, and Moorhead were confirmed to be returning for the second season, with Benson and Moorhead directing the first two episodes. Scardapane said the second season would just be eight episodes, and described its production as a "better-oiled machine". In May, star Vincent D'Onofrio revealed that Angela Barnes would direct for the season after doing so for the Marvel Studios series Ironheart (2025). Solvan "Slick" Naim and Iain B. MacDonald were revealed in July to also be directing. Naim directed the third and fourth episodes, Barnes directed the fifth and sixth episodes, and MacDonald directed the final two episodes. Executive producers included Marvel Studios' Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, and Sana Amanat, alongside Scardapane, Benson, Moorhead, MacDonald, Cox, and D'Onofrio. David Chambers serves as producer. The series is released under Marvel Studios' "Marvel Television" label.

Writing

The series' initial take 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. D'Onofrio said in March 2023 that they were working on two seasons and there would be "gigantic payoffs" during the second. Following the series' creative overhaul, serialized elements were added, and the cast said the events of the original series would be part of their characters' histories. Some new storylines build on those events, but they did not want to dwell too much on the past or alienate new viewers. Scardapane said his creative goal for Born Again, particularly starting in the second season, was to cover the world of all the Marvel Netflix series, and he had discussions about including the characters Jessica Jones and Luke Cage from when he first joined the series.

Heather Bellson, Jesse Wigutow, and Devon Kliger returned as writers from the first season, alongside newcomers Chantelle Wells and Omar Najam. Wigutow said the season had a "singular vision", unlike the first which at times felt "jigsawed together" due to the creative overhaul. Scardapane said the scripts for seven episodes were "locked, loaded, [and] ready to go" ahead of filming. He was still working on the season finale, as he wanted to incorporate elements discovered during filming similar to traditional network television series where only a few episodes are written ahead of the one being filmed. The final script was completed by May 2025. Star Charlie Cox applauded the scripts, believing the season had some of the series' best writing and a strong ensemble due to it developing characters who Cox felt were "left behind" in the series' initial iteration. A character that was inherited from the initial take is the serial killer Muse, whose storyline has a "ripple effect" from the first season into the second. Scardapane felt they did not do justice in resolving this storyline in the first season, but he was able to expand on it in the second by exploring how therapist Heather Glenn is impacted by Muse's actions and eventually takes on the mantle of Muse herself going into the third season.

Scardapane described the second season as a "part two", building on what had been done with the first, with visual cues, themes, and Easter eggs from the first season that "pay off monstrously" in the second. At the end of the first season, Mayor Wilson Fisk / Kingpin has placed New York City under martial law and locked his political opponents in cages. D'Onofrio said this allows Fisk to commit crimes and get rid of vigilantes, but the character has bigger plans to expand his power and reach beyond New York. Wigutow said the season was telling a "big New York City story" about crime and politics that narrows down to "what matters most" in the finale, and is ultimately about Fisk and Matt Murdock / Daredevil both hating and needing each other. Scardapane said Fisk and Murdock's fight "poisons everything around them", while Cox said Fisk's New York had become "much more sinister" for those looking to do the right thing and the first-season pact between Murdock and Fisk, to avoid confronting each other, no longer applies. Because of Fisk's actions, the characters are divided into two factions: Murdock's resistance and Fisk's administration. Scardapane said the season is a "resistance story" that explores how Murdock, who found a balance with his life as the vigilante Daredevil in the first season, can continue to operate now that being a vigilante is illegal. He said in April 2025 that Murdock's fellow Defenders from Marvel's Netflix series could join his army, but incorporating them all was "tricky writing-wise" as the writers wanted the story to unfold organically and earn the right to have returning characters; a month later, Jones was announced to be one of Murdock's allies in the season.

Casting

Main cast members returning from the first season include Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn, Tony Dalton as Jack Duquesne / Swordsman, Michael Gandolfini as Daniel Blake, Nikki M. James as Kirsten McDuffie, Arty Froushan as Buck Cashman, Genneya Walton as BB Urich, Zabryna Guevara as Sheila Rivera, Clark Johnson as Cherry, Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk, Wilson Bethel as Dex Poindexter / Bullseye, and Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson.

At the end of February 2025, Matthew Lillard joined the cast for the season as Mr. Charles. He called it a "small role right now" and was hopeful the character could return in the future. The next month, Lili Taylor joined as Marge McCaffrey, the governor of New York and a political opponent to Fisk. Also in March, set photos revealed that Annie Parisse was part of the cast. In May, Krysten Ritter was announced to be reprising her role as Jessica Jones from Marvel's Netflix series. Ritter said she had known about her return to the role for nearly two years and had struggled to keep that secret due to being "asked about [playing the character again] daily". Royce Johnson was revealed in July to be reprising his role as Brett Mahoney from Marvel's Netflix series, and confirmed his involvement in December. Toby Leonard Moore was revealed in March 2026 to be reprising his role as James Wesley from the first season of Daredevil (2015). Geoffrey Cantor and Mike Colter also returned from Marvel's Netflix series in their respective roles of Mitchell Ellison and Luke Cage for brief appearances in the season finale. Ritter initially called Colter herself about reprising his role after discussing the potential for an appearance with Amanat. The producers contacted Colter around six weeks before the finale was filmed and were initially unsure if he would come back for a single scene due to his busy schedule. Colter publicly revealed that there had been discussions about his return as Cage in January 2026.

Other actors returning from the first season of Born Again include Susan Varon as Josie, Camila Rodriguez as Angela del Toro / White Tiger, Hamish Allan-Headley as Connor Powell, John Benjamin Hickey as Benjamin Hochberg, Jeremy Isaiah Earl as Cole North, Ruibo Qian as Angie Kim, and Ashley Marie Ortiz as Soledad Ayala. There was speculation about whether Jon Bernthal would return as Frank Castle / Punisher, but Amanat said he would not and Castle's story would instead be continued in One Last Kill. D'Onofrio said Bernthal was not in the season because of his commitments to One Last Kill and Brand New Day.

Design

Michael Shaw and Emily Gunshor returned as production designer and costume designer, respectively, from the first season. The second season features a black Daredevil suit with a red "double D" chest emblem, similar to the one featured in the "Shadowland" (2010) comic book storyline. It is the first time the character has worn a suit with the chest emblem in the MCU. The suit is Daredevil's red suit from the first season spray-painted black. Throughout the second season, the black paint gradually peels away, revealing more of the red underneath. Cox felt it was "pretty cool" to finally wear a suit with the chest emblem and said he had never asked for it before and had to "earn it". He was happy for the suit to be seen in set photos, rather than the usual secrecy that is taken with a new suit during production, because he was proud to finally have the emblem and wanted to show it off. A scene was shot showing Murdock painting the suit, which Scardapane said was "pretty surreal", but it was ultimately cut from the season because it would have revealed the "double D" emblem and the creative team felt it was more interesting to first show the emblem during an actual Daredevil sequence. Cox said the suit with the peeled away paint was his favorite to date, calling it "bad-ass" and noting it had unique elements that were created for the season and had not been seen in the comics.

Dex's Bullseye costume was also updated for the season, featuring a black and blue "target" emblem on the forehead, similar to the iconic white one from the comics. Gunshor recreated Jones's leather jacket from Marvel's Netflix television series Jessica Jones (2015–2019), based on the original jacket which Ritter had kept after that series ended. Angela wears a homemade White Tiger costume that Gunshor described as a "kind of armor", though she also said it is not a "full superhero suit"; it consists of a white tiger-print bandana covering the lower half of Angela's face, a white hood under a black vest, and black gloves and belt that she swaps for white ones over the course of the season. AVTF members wear a new all-black armored uniform this season that features the Punisher's iconic skull symbol as the task force's logo.

Filming

Principal photography began on February 28, 2025, with Benson and Moorhead, Naim, Barnes, and MacDonald as directors, under the working title Out the Kitchen 2. Soundstage work occurred at Silvercup Studios East in Queens. Hillary Fyfe Spera returned as cinematographer from the first season, working on the first, second, fifth, and sixth episodes. Jeffrey Waldron was cinematographer for the other four episodes. Philip Silvera also returned from the first season as stunt coordinator and second unit director. In late March, filming occurred in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, at the set for Josie's Bar, with Cox wearing his black Daredevil suit. In early April, Bethel filmed scenes in Chelsea. Dalton was injured while filming action scenes for the season, requiring him to rest for two or three weeks. Filming of a scene at New York City Hall involved more than 300 extras and 35 stunt performers, and took place over four nights, with shooting occurring between 6 p.m. and 4 a.m. each night. Two distinct fight scenes that alternate continuously were filmed in a single day, with Silvera having had three days to prepare each: the first fight features Daredevil, Jones, and White Tiger facing off against AVFT officers, while the second shows Fisk killing several protesters. Filming was halfway done by mid-May, and wrapped on July 9.

D'Onofrio believed the fight between Fisk and Murdock in the season was very similar to the action in the original Netflix series. The season features some archival footage from Daredevil which is presented in its original 1.78:1 full screen aspect ratio rather than Born Again's wider 2.39:1 aspect ratio. 1.78:1 was also used for the new flashback scenes in the fifth episode, along with a different lighting approach that is closer to that of the original series. Commentators believed there was a possible appearance of a Watcher in the fourth episode, which was acknowledged by Winderbaum. An outline of the Watcher's head is seemingly created out of broken glass after Bullseye and Daredevil escape through the window of Fogwell's Gym, with the indoor light fixtures believed to be forming the Watcher's eyes.

Post-production

Editors for the season included Melissa Lawson Cheung (first and fourth episodes), Stephanie Filo (second, fifth, and seventh episodes), and Cedric Nairn-Smith (third, sixth, and eighth episodes), with Lyric Ramsey and Yoni Rusnak assisting on the fifth and sixth episodes, respectively; Cheung, Filo, and Nairn-Smith returned from the first season. Gong Myung Lee also returned as visual effects supervisor, with visual effects provided by Eyeline, Storm Studios, Important Looking Pirates, Lola Visual Effects, Phosphene, Curated, Anibrain, Cantina Creative, FOLKS, EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani, Ingenuity Studios, and Wylie Co. VFX.

Blake was originally meant to survive his scene with Cashman in the seventh episode, with Gandolfini filming scenes for the final episode and expecting to return for the third season. While writing the third season and editing the second, Scardapane came to feel that this was the wrong decision and said keeping him alive was "kind of meh and a non-story" that did not stay true to either character. The scene was altered through editing and visual effects to end with Cashman killing Blake, and the latter's scenes were removed from the eighth episode. Gandolfini agreed that this was the right decision and called it a "respectful goodbye" for Blake.

Music

The Newton Brothers return as composers from the first season. Their score for the season was released digitally by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music in two volumes: music from the first four episodes were released on April 7, and music for the other four episodes were released on May 5.

Marketing

In May 2025, Cox and Ritter appeared at Disney's upfront presentation where they debuted footage from the season, and Cox confirmed that Daredevil would wear an "iconic" suit featuring the "double D" chest emblem. In October, Cox and Ritter appeared together again at New York Comic Con to present footage from the season. More footage was shown at CCXP in December. The first teaser trailer was released on January 27, 2026, set to Childish Gambino's "Lithonia". The teaser was noted for showing Foggy Nelson, which commentators believed would be for a flashback sequence.

Release

The season premiered on March 24, 2026, and consists of eight episodes, releasing weekly until May 5. A launch event was held at Drais Supper Club in New York City on March 23, 2026. It is part of Phase Six of the MCU, and is released under Marvel Studios' "Marvel Television" label.

Reception

Viewership

Streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol, which monitors daily updated VOD charts and streaming ratings across the globe, reported that Daredevil: Born Again season 2 debuted at No. 1 on Disney+'s overall streaming charts. The season ranked No. 2 in Hungary, Ireland, and the United Kingdom; No. 3 in several markets, including Australia, Canada, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Poland; and No. 4 in the United States and other countries.

Luminate, which measures streaming performance in the United States using viewership data, audience engagement metrics, and content reach across multiple platforms, reported that the second season of Daredevil: Born Again accumulated 4.5 million views, 10.9 million hours watched, and 652 million minutes watched during its first five weeks of release. This marked an approximate 46% decline in total views and a 54% decline in total hours watched compared with the first five weeks of the first season's release. Luminate subsequently reported that the second season of Daredevil: Born Again amassed 5.8 million views and was streamed for 2.3 billion minutes during the first half of 2026.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 131 critics gave the season a positive review, and the average of rated reviews was 7.85 out of 10. The critics consensus reads, "Daredevil: Born Again imbues its second season with rich substance thanks to devilishly good performances, punchier narrative momentum, and well-timed themes befitting this daring crusader." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Critics praised the season as an improvement over the first and one of the best projects from Marvel Television, highlighting the action and performances, including those of Cox and D'Onofrio.

Discussing the continuous shot fight from the third episode, Casey Loving at TheWrap felt it was better than the one in the first season, saying it "harkens back to the hallway fights of old, bringing more tension, stakes and clarity than we've ever seen outside of the original Netflix series". He enjoyed Daredevil fighting AVTF agents, the fight setting and composition, and the inclusion of Dalton, but took issue with the "wonkiness" of the digital effects used. He ranked the fight fourth out of the character's seven continuous shot fights to date.

Podcast

Marvel Television launched a nine-episode Daredevil: Born Again Official Podcast, which began on March 17, 2026. It features conversations with the cast, crew, and creatives, with the first episode looking back at the series so far and teasing elements of the season. Subsequent weekly episodes of the podcast will further explore each episode of the season. The Daredevil: Born Again Official Podcast is being released on Disney+ and YouTube, with an audio-only version available on various podcast platforms.