Netflix’s Daredevil featured Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) fighting for justice by day as a lawyer, and by night as a masked vigilante. At the time, the show was widely applauded for the visual prowess of its action sequences, and for balancing themes of justice, revenge, morality and redemption. Eventually, the blind superhero and its three seasons (2015-2018) in New York’s darkened Hell’s Kitchen set a standard for what people were looking for from Marvel when it came to street-level heroes, and spawned, with better or worse luck, the series The Punisher, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders.
For those interested in keeping a detailed record of the MCU, Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+ marks the thirteenth series in the franchise to air on the small screen and the second project centred on the iconic character. As Variety reports, during the first five days of airing, Born Again racked up more than 7 million global views on Disney+, and almost immediately became the streamer’s biggest hit of 2025 (for now, at least).
So what do we have here?
Ten years after Netflix premiered its TV-MA-rated Daredevil series, Charlie Cox has returned as the blind, masked vigilante in the revival, Daredevil: Born Again (the title of Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s magnificent 1986 comic book saga). The new Marvel Studios series bridges continuity with the Netflix series and tells a story that takes place years after the original.
Created by Dario Scardapane, the new Daredevil: Born Again begins its run with several familiar characters and gets a strong reboot from its first episode.
The pilot episode is one of the best Marvel Studios has done in a long, long time. In it, Matt and his best friends, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), head to Josie’s Bar to celebrate the retirement of an NYPD veteran. Unfortunately, that night shatters Matt’s world forever.
Raw, violent, and emotional, the episode Heaven’s Half Hour sets the tone for the installment.
From the outset, we can tell that this is a brilliantly detailed sequel. We already know that Matt Murdock’s character has been forged through the unfortunate events of his past, such as the death of his father, his blindness, his harsh training with Stick, and his duality as both lawyer and hero.
Now, Born Again’s Matt Murdock is a man who has survived his most personal tragedy yet and is focused on finding justice in the courts rather than on the streets.
This rebirth of Daredevil is wonderfully complex. On the one hand, Marvel is trying to recapture some of the magic of the previous series, with Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio back as Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, respectively. But at the same time, Born Again introduces a whole new cast to take over and bring a different side to the table.
After the fateful incident at Josie’s Bar and not without difficulty, Matt gets a new love interest, new co-workers and practically a new life. He’s buried his past, given up his pointy hood and stopped living in Hell’s Kitchen. Now, he’s dating shrewd therapist Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), who doesn’t much like vigilantes. He’s joined on the job by Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), a former assistant district attorney, and Cherry (Clark Johnson), a plucky ex-cop.
True to form, Matt Murdock also faces the appearance of his old arch-nemesis, Wilson Fisk. Across town, Fisk is successfully running for mayor of New York City. At his side are his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), the ever-power-hungry Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini) and Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), his tenacious campaign manager. He also has Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan), who essentially does the dirty work.
“I was raised to believe in grace and retribution”
Early in the series, Matt meets Fisk in a coffee shop for a conversation and tells him that he was raised to believe in grace, “that we can be touched by the divine and transformed into a better person.” Later, he adds that he was also raised to believe in retribution, whereby the wicked must be punished for their sins. This suggests that Matt will follow closely in the footsteps of the allegedly reformed criminal and will not hesitate to mete out justice on his own if necessary.
While a considerable part of the first season of Daredevil: Born Again focuses on Matt’s reluctance to fight crime outside of the courts, the series also shows how ruthless and unscrupulous individuals, such as Fisk and his wife Vanessa use violence, terror and force of will to gain positions of power and thus shape both the system and public opinion to their will.
The city is corrupt and drenched in blood and death, so Matt’s work as Daredevil is far from over.
At its core, the season focuses on the parallels between Matt/Daredevil and Fisk/Kingpin as both characters face the consequences of their actions and struggle to overcome their dark and violent natures. Matt Murdock may think he has changed. Wilson Fisk may think he’s changed.
But, we all know by now that true transformation is a process and a challenging one.
In Born Again, there are no multiversal threats or aliens, but crime, corruption, and complex people capable of good and evil. Throughout the show, we see that good people can do bad things and bad people can do good things. The sharp storyline reflects on our sins and our own humanity.
An exceptional cast
The greatest success of Born Again continues to be the cast. The performances are, once again, competent, solid, and in keeping with the demands of the character.
Charlie Cox, in particular, exhibits a standout performance in the series, embodying a convincing Matt Murdock, who confronts both his yearning for justice and his Christian principles. His courtroom performance is remarkable, as is his ability to convey deep emotions throughout the season.
D’Onofrio excels in his portrayal of Fisk. The actor captures the character’s intricate psychology, his calculating mind, his refined style and his shuddering outbursts of anger. He is often the most magnetic character to watch on the show.
Worthy of mention is the late Kamar de los Reyes, who played Hector Ayala, aka White Tiger (Tigre Blanco), a street hero endowed with a magical amulet that gives him extraordinary strength and speed. Like Jon Bernthal’s formidable performance as Frank Castle in the second season of Daredevil, Hector Ayala’s character is a complicated man of deep emotions, and his scenes with Matt are top-notch.
A dark and violent series
Cox wasn’t lying when he expressed in interviews that the action scenes would be as intense, if not more so, than Netflix’s Daredevil. In fact, any concerns that the switch from Netflix to Disney+ would mean a decrease in the intensity of the action are quickly dispelled in the first episode.
In keeping with the tone of the original show, the fight scenes are explicit and brutal, with no concessions to sentimentality. In some instances, in fact, the threshold of violence is pushed a little too far.
We already know that Daredevil refrains from killing his enemies by virtue of his Catholic code. Yet in Born Again, our hero breaks bones, crushes skulls and spills an incredible amount of blood to deliver justice.
Our verdict
Daredevil: Born Again faces the enormous challenge of not only continuing one of Marvel’s most outstanding series, but also delving deeper into the complexity of its protagonist. And our verdict is that the Disney+ series delivers in spades.
For those looking for a superhero adventure, legally interesting, with an intense setting and shocking revelations, this series will meet your expectations.
While it is not without its slips, it represents a remarkable revival.