‘Daredevil: Born Again’ will return for a third season.
Charlie Cox stars as Matt Murdock/Daredevil.
Vincent D’Onofrio is also expected to be back as the Kingpin.
Despite a troubled development process, which included scrapping footage and hiring a new showrunner, the Marvel/Disney+ series ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ arrived to praise and solid viewing figures this past March.
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The show, which saw the return of Charlie Cox as superpowered blind lawyer Matt Murdock (who also battles crime as costumed vigilante Daredevil) and Vincent D’Onofrio as powerful crime figure Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk effectively continued the story from the Netflix‘Daredevil’ series, albeit this time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Despite comments from Cox in July (see more on that below), Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming, television and animation at Marvel Studios, confirmed the third season renewal in an interview with IGN.
‘Born Again’ follows Fisk who goes from being a gangster to a NYC autocrat mayor. Matt falls in love with therapist Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), but she winds up becoming an ally in the Fisk administration.
Season 2 will see the return of Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones character. Also in the Season 1 finale, Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/Punisher returned and, in the very end, broke out of Fisk’s Red Hook jail.
In addition to the next two batches of Daredevil, the Punisher character will appear in his own one-off special co-written by and starring Bernthal and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. It’s been shot but has yet to confirm a premiere date.
What did Cox and D’Onofrio say about the chances of a third season?
While a second season had already been ordered (and shot for a 2026 launch), Cox in a statement at GalaxyCon seemed to indicate that it would serve as the final season.
Yet that was reportedly taken out of context and for his part, D’Onofrio took to social media to say:
“Good chance there will be a third [season].”
When will ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 3 be on screens?
While Season 2 is due next year, Season 3 won’t shoot until around the same time, so we can expect it to launch in early 2027.
Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones in ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’. Photo: Netflix.
Preview:
Krysten Ritter will appear in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2.
She’s bringing Jessica Jones back to screens.
Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio star in the show.
Looks like the Defenders are getting back together. Well, some of them at least.
As part of its presentation at the big Disney Upfront this week (where the company touted its upcoming and returning shows in the hopes of luring advertising dollars), Marvel brought Krysten Ritter on stage to announce that she will appear as Jessica Jones in the second season of Disney+ series ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
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This is what Ritter said about returning to the role:
“It’s so great to be back, returning to Jessica after three seasons and ‘The Defenders’ and now joining the MCU. I’m so excited to bring back this iconic character, and without giving too much away, there is much more in store for Jessica Jones. This is going to be an incredible season!”
Ritter’s gritty, funny portrayal of the character was widely acclaimed, and she was a definite standout among the Netflix/Marvel heroes.
There had been talk that other Netflix characters might be making the leap, following Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil and his arch nemesis The Kingpin, AKA Wilson Fisk, as played by Vincent D’Onofrio.
Hopes remain high that Mike Colter, who played Luke Cage, a hulking hero with great strength and impenetrable skin, might also show up. And that’s it for the Defenders line up. There definitely was not anybody else we’d want to see.
Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones in ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’. Photo: Netflix.
One of the key characters during the Netflix/Marvel TV run, with her standalone series launching in 2015 and lasting for three seasons. She also appeared in the ‘Defenders’ team-up miniseries in 2017.
Jessica was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos and first appeared in ‘Alias #1’ (November 2001) as part of Marvel’s Max, an imprint for more mature content.
She gains super strength and the ability to fly (to some degree, it’s more like giant leaps) and relative invulnerability but the accident also kills her family (or so she thinks).
In the show, much as in the comic, she’s an extremely troubled young woman, an alcoholic who funds her life through working as a private investigator.
In Season 1, she must deal with Kilgrave (David Tennant), a cunning and sadistic mind manipulator who forced her to kill someone while under his power and effectively ended her brief heroic career.
A continuation of the ‘Daredevil’ series that aired on Netflix from 2015 to 2018, ‘Born Again’ picks up with our hero Matt Murdock (Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities, amid a continued fight for justice through his bustling law firm.
At the same time, former mob boss Wilson Fisk (D’Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.
Season 2 will pick up after the cliffhanger of the first, in which crime lord Fisk violently consolidated power, leading Matt to go underground and begin reaching out to allies to resist Fisk and his anti-vigilante task force. Jones will be part of that group of allies.
“People were watching it as a season four, not at as a first season. It’s given us the confidence of making the show annually into the future.”
Just don’t got expecting this to open any floodgate for other characters, according to the executive:
“It’s about not rushing and telling the best story. Yes, it’s exciting to think about characters interacting, but it’s about the reasons why. At times we’ve done that very well, at times we’ve rushed. The story has to lead the path.”
The show follows Riri’s further adventures as she works on her technological creations (including her version of the Iron Man suit) and encounters some dangerous villains.
‘Ironheart’ launches on Disney+ on June 24th, and you can see the trailer below.
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Then there is ‘Wonder Man,’ about a superpowered actor and stunt man (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who auditions to be in a superhero movie.
Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle in Marvel’s ‘The Punisher.’ Photo: Netflix.
Preview:
Jon Bernthal will be back as Frank “The Punisher” Castle for a new Marvel special.
He’s also returning for ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
Bernthal will co-write the special with ‘King Richard’ director Reinaldo Marcus Green.
Crime might not pay, but vengeance appears to be profitable for Disney going forward.
With Jon Bernthal’s tough nut vigilante Frank Castle –– also known as The Punisher –– back on our screens for next month’s ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ which will find him once more interacting with Charlie Cox’s blind lawyer-turned-super-sensory-hero Matt Murdock, Entertainment Weekly brings word that we can expect more from Bernthal in 2026.
It’s a big vote of confidence in both the character and Bernthal’s portrayal and shows that Marvel is willing to further explore other avenues for its characters. And The Punisher is certainly a popular comic book creation.
‘Born Again,’ meanwhile, revisits the Daredevil character as portrayed in the Marvel/Netflix series that ran between 2015 and 2018. After its initial episodes were filmed, Marvel decided to overhaul it creatively and bringing it closer in story to the Netflix run.
Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle in Marvel’s ‘The Punisher.’
Exact details of the story have yet to be revealed, but unless it’s a complete stand-alone, chances are it ties into the ongoing Castle story explored in ‘Born Again,’ so it’s perhaps not surprising that Marvel doesn’t want to spill too much.
But here’s what Brad Winderbaum, head of Marvel Television, told EW:
“It’s like a shotgun blast of a story, but also has all the pathos and emotion that you want out of a Frank Castle story. It’s so exciting.”
Castle will come back into Murdock’s life in ‘Born Again’ at the lawyer’s request because Matt needs help with something handled that he’s unwilling to do, and Frank naturally dives in all guns blazing.
The new story marks even more involvement for Bernthal than usual –– he co-wrote the new special’s script with filmmaker Reinaldo Marcus Green, and the latter will direct the one-off.
Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle in Marvel’s ‘The Punisher.’ Photo: Netflix.
The character was created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru and made his first appearance in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man #129’ in 1974 originally depicted as an assassin and adversary of the web-slinger.
The character is traditionally depicted as an Italian-American vigilante who employs murder, kidnapping, extortion, coercion, threats of violence, and torture in his campaign against crime.
On the big screen, he’s been portrayed by the likes of Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane and Ray Stevenson, while Bernthal played him in the second season of the Netflix ‘Daredevil’ series and in his own aforementioned titular show.
Here’s what Winderbaum said of Bernthal’s work:
“Bernthal is a generational actor. He’s incredible what he brings to all the roles he plays, but particularly Frank Castle. And he’s a great writer. He knows the character inside and out…. Also, I love Punisher, but I love Jon’s Punisher in particular. The idea that he’s in the MCU and can bring that to the greater universe, especially the more grounded street-level stuff, is a huge opportunity and, as a fan, the greatest thing ever.”
What of the other Marvel/Netflix characters?
(L to R) Krysten Ritter, Finn Jones, Charlie Cox and Mike Colter in ‘The Defenders’. Photo: Netflix.
While Matt Murdock and his associated characters are returning for ‘Born Again,’ there hasn’t been much movement on the rest of the ‘Defenders’ line-up from the Netflix days, including Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, Mike Colter’s Luke Cage, and Finn Jones’ Danny Rand/Iron Fist.
But Winderbaum has said that they might get their turn:
“I can’t say much. But I’ll tell you that It’s so exciting to be able to play in that sandbox… I can just say that all those variables taken into account, it is certainly something that is creatively extremely exciting and that we are very much exploring.”
When will the ‘Punisher’ Marvel special be on screens?
The current plan for the new special is for it to hit screens next year, around the same time as the second season of ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’ Which means we can expect plenty of Punisher content in 2026…
And the first season of ‘Born Again,’ which as mentioned includes Bernthal, kicks off on March 4th on Disney+.
Marvel Studios’ ‘Daredevil: Born Again.’
Movies and TV Shows Featuring Characters in ‘Daredevil: Born Again:’
In ‘Echo,’ the new Marvel Studios streaming series on Disney+, we reunite with the title character, aka Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), who we first met in the 2021 series ‘Hawkeye.’ This deaf member of the Choctaw Nation was working in that show as head of the Tracksuit Mafia, a criminal gang operating under the auspices of Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio).
Learning that Fisk was responsible for the death of her father, Maya seemingly took her revenge on her boss and mentor at the end of ‘Hawkeye,’ shooting him in the eye. But as Marvel fans know, the Kingpin is almost impossible to keep down. With Fisk and his organization now after her in ‘Echo,’ Maya heads back to her hometown in Oklahoma, where she works to disrupt the Kingpin’s plans while re-embracing her family, her Native American roots, and her mysterious past.
‘Echo’ is the 10th Marvel Studios series to debut on Disney+ as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like many other recent MCU offerings, ‘Echo’ has had its share of turbulence: the show was reportedly shot initially as an eight-episode limited series, but was later overhauled and reshot, with its episode count whittled down to five and its release delayed.
In its current incarnation, ‘Echo’ may be Marvel’s most violent series yet, with a gritty tone reminiscent of Marvel’s now-defunct Netflix shows like ‘Daredevil’ and ‘The Punisher.’ It’s also steeped in representation of the Choctaw Nation and Indigenous culture, with Marvel – in keeping with its long history in the comics – leading the way on giving marginalized people a seat at the superhero table.
Here are 10 things we learned at the ‘Echo’ press conference from Cox, D’Onofrio, Canadian Mohawk cast member Devery Jacobs, Navajo director and executive producer Sydney Freeland, and Marvel Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation Brad Winderbaum (edited for clarity and length).
A member of the Menominee and Mohican Nations, Alaqua Cox made her acting debut as Maya Lopez in ‘Hawkeye.’ Born deaf like her character, Cox faced other challenges as well, including growing up as an amputee with a prosthetic leg. Lopez says she shares many experiences with Maya.
Alaqua Cox: Well, we’re similar. I was raised with some trauma. We both have childhood trauma, of course, that we’re raised with, and it was different, of course. For example, I am an amputee, so I went through many different kinds of surgeries as a child. That made me a warrior, in a sense. And Maya had the death of her mother and all these tragic events that happened in her life. So we both have different traumatic experiences. It kind of makes us very similar in a way because we’re both warriors, we’re tough, and we’re badass, and I believe that’s how we’re the same.
Alaqua Cox says her athletic background helped her prepare for the rigorous training she undertook to fight and move like Maya.
Alaqua Cox: Luckily, I grew up playing different kinds of sports. Plus I do have an older brother who helped me become more of an athlete, because he’s very much an athletic person. We’re about a year and a half apart, so we wrestled growing up. That toughened me up. Then, when I did get the role, I had a stunt training team. About five days a week I would go to the training, and it was a lot. I learned so much as well. Growing up in sports, there weren’t a lot of stunt-specific things in sports, so stunt training was a whole new world to me. I was able to learn choreography, jabs, fights, and those specific moves, and that was so fun, and very challenging as well. But that was the greatest part of the project.
3) Why Vincent D’Onofrio Loves Playing Kingpin
Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk on Netflix’s ‘Daredevil.’
Vincent D’Onofrio has played Kingpin now in three Marvel series — ‘Daredevil,’ ‘Hawkeye,’ and ‘Echo’ — and explains why he continues to find Wilson Fisk such a compelling character.
Vincent D’Onofrio: I think that, originally in the comic books, he was also compelling. I’ve just been lucky to get the opportunity, beginning with the Netflix show, with really good writing, to bring him forward in I guess a kind of new way, but just my version of what they did in the original comics. Now in ‘Echo,’ it’s just more good writing. Without the writing, I can’t really do much other than show up. So the writing is there, and it gives me the opportunity to bring the character forward. ‘Echo’ is the first time since the Netflix show when I’ve actually felt like we brought Fisk into Maya’s story, but in a way that Fisk is, I think, best portrayed. It’s very similar to the way it was in the original series. That’s very exciting for me always, because it has a grittier feel to it and it’s a more emotional story with me and Alaqua’s character, Maya. I think that kind of tone is where my character, I believe, lives best.
Director and executive producer Sydney Freeland says that representation and collaboration with the Choctaw Nation was essential for ‘Echo.’
Sydney Freeland: Representation wasn’t something that was “if,” it was always something that was a necessity. So I think one of the things that was important for us was being able to engage with the Choctaw Nation very early on. I remember we came and presented at the Choctaw Cultural Center [in Oklahoma]. Really, for myself, there was two things. One was to ask permission from the Choctaw Nation to be portrayed because I feel like a lot of times what happens with Native and Indigenous stories is that people come in and they say, “We’re going to tell you what the story we’re going to tell.” We wanted to take a different approach. The second part was like, “Can we create a dialogue?” We want to be as authentic in our portrayal of the Choctaw language, the Choctaw culture, the Choctaw experience as we can. That came from the Choctaw Nation. I think a lot of times people tend to jumble all Native American tribes and cultures into this one big kind of monolith, and that’s not the case. Every tribe is different, every language is different, every culture has its own unique specificities. I’m Navajo and we’re telling a Choctaw story, so for me, it was an absolute necessity that we engage the Choctaw Nation to tell that story.
5) Choctaw Art Inspired One of the Show’s Key Relationships
Devery Jacobs (also the voice of Kahhori on Season 2 of Marvel’s ‘What If…?’) plays Bonnie, a child of deaf parents and Maya’s cousin, who stayed behind in Oklahoma to live her life there. Jacobs says that a piece of art was an inspiration for her character’s complex, sister-like relationship to Maya.
Devery Jacobs: We really wanted to make sure that it felt real between myself and Alaqua, that we had that history feel between us, and we did a lot of work beforehand to make sure that that history could be felt. Also, before going to Atlanta to shoot ‘Echo,’ I had a chance to stop in at the Choctaw Cultural Center, which was so beautiful. There was a piece towards the very end — and I’m kicking myself that I can’t remember the artist’s name — that was about these two cousins. There’s an older cousin and a younger cousin, and the relationship between Maya and Bonnie is, even though they’re cousins, it’s almost like they’re sisters. So it was that piece that was really inspiring to me. I remember texting the image to Alaqua and was like, “This feels like this is our characters.”
Director Sydney Freeland says that ‘Echo’ reveals more about Maya Lopez’s past as well as that of the Choctaw Nation.
Sydney Freeland: One of the most interesting aspects about the character is the fact that she’s a villain in ‘Hawkeye.’ But then within that, once you start pulling on that thread, you look at where she comes from, and you look at, “Oh, this is a deaf, Indigenous amputee girl from Oklahoma. How the hell does she end up being one of the top-ranking lieutenants in Kingpin’s army?” Answering those questions was such an exciting place to be. Then answering the question, “Well, what is that like when she goes back home?” Just for myself, being Indigenous, being an American, it was such a fun and exciting place to be. Then once you layer the Choctaw cultural specifics onto that, it gave us a chance to tell a really fun story. I think one example of that is actually in the second episode of our series. We have a scene that I think I can honestly say has never been seen on film before: we get a chance to visit pre-European-contact America, and that whole sequence came as a direct result of working with the Choctaw Nation.
Marvel movies and TV shows tend to land almost exclusively in more or less family-friendly territory in terms of ratings (PG-13 for movies, TV-PG or TV-14 for series). ‘Echo’ is the first Marvel show to land a TV-MA rating — the small screen equivalent to an R.
Brad Winderbaum: Well, I think Marvel is at its best when the storytellers follow the character and let the character kind of lead the dance, lead the journey. We knew, as soon as we cast Alaqua in ‘Hawkeye’ and saw what she did on screen in that show, that she would be an incredible character to follow into her journey. You know, ‘Echo’ is a more adult show. It’s our first TV-MA show, but we didn’t set out to make a TV-MA show. We set out to make a Maya Lopez show. This is a character who has a violent past, who’s dealt with some real trauma, who has really difficult decisions to make and ultimately has to confront people she loves in order to grow and change. In following this character, it created the tone. It created a grittier, more grounded story for the audience. That just so happened to be more adult. More TV-MA. But it really was always born from Maya as a character.
8) Vincent D’Onofrio Had An ‘Amazing’ Time Working on ‘Echo’
Despite rumors of extensive reshoots and revisions, Vincent D’Onofrio says that ‘Echo’ was a particularly satisfying experience for him and explains why.
Vincent D’Onofrio: There’s a couple things about this show that were really special. One of them was the fact that Sydney was one of the directors and executive producers. Then there was the fact that the DP was a woman. The writer was a woman. The directors were women. The lead is a woman. It’s one of the smoothest shows that I was ever on in my life. It was run so well. There was never a kink in the day. Nobody ever bumped against anything, not while I was there anyway. It was one of the smoothest productions. The first thing I said to my kids when I got home was, “That was one of the smoothest productions I’ve ever been on.” It was amazing, and that doesn’t always happen.
9) ‘Echo’ Is an Evolution in Storytelling for Native People
Alaqua Cox said that making ‘Echo’ with Native representation, actors, and creators is a major step forward in telling Indigenous stories in Hollywood.
Alaqua Cox: I’m just so proud to be able to represent a platform that is uplifting voices for Indigenous people, and I’m just obviously so excited. I think it’s so great that we have authentic people being picked for these roles, and we’re able to show them on the screen in authentic representation. We’re doing it the right way. That’s what I think is the most important.
Devery Jacobs added:
Devery Jacobs: To borrow a saying from the disabled community that they have coined, they say nothing about us without us. I think that’s so true for any marginalized community, including Indigenous folks. When it comes to telling our stories, making sure that there are as many storytellers from that community as possible is paramount. There’s been 100 years of lack of representation and misrepresentation and an intentional exclusion of Indigenous voices in Hollywood. To have us be a part of these conversations is integral to making sure that we’re able to accurately tell our stories.
Marvel executive producer Brad Winderbaum says that ‘Echo’ marks a new turning point for the way Marvel tells stories.
Brad Winderbaum: Marvel is such a big, vast universe. The comics have been called the greatest ongoing story that’s ever been written – certainly the longest. There are so many corners to the universe that are still unexplored, even today. Maya allowed us to see a corner of the MCU that hadn’t been seen before. To me, that is the future of Marvel. It is being able to tell stories that are unexpected, that operate on the fringe of what we’ve seen before, and are standalone, character-focused, and have a unique personality all their own. In a way, ‘Echo’ marks a new beginning for the studio. It’s a new tone for us. It is a truly grounded and emotional journey. Not just for the audience, but certainly, for all of us who are lucky to be behind the scenes. I have to say that, through Sydney’s leadership on the production, we had a real sense of community making this show. It was a nurturing, collaborative experience, and frankly, one of the best in my career.
Following the events chronicled in 2021’s ‘Hawkeye’, ‘Echo’ catches up with Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) as she is pursued by Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) criminal empire. When the journey brings her home, she must confront her own family and legacy.
