Since the very first confirmation that Charlie Cox would be returning as the Scarlet Swashbuckler to lead his own MCU spinoff, fans have wondered exactly how Daredevil: Born Again would fit into the overarching universe, and a recent set photo might have just given us a surprising answer. After setting up the character’s return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the MCU has slowly but surely been expanding its interest in the world of Daredevil, with Vincent D’Onofrio’s appearance as Kingpin in Hawkeye laying the groundwork for Alaqua Cox’s Echo spinoff.
Although the original Netflix series was intended to take place shortly after the events of 2012’s The Avengers, Daredevil (along with all of Netflix’s other Marvel productions) was eventually assumed to be not canonical after years of being unrecognized by the film productions. Now that the character is making his official debut in the larger world of the MCU, this means that the mythos of his past is an entirely blank slate. While it’s bittersweet news for those who were looking forward to a continuation of Cox’s previous adventures as Matt Murdock, it also means that the show has a unique opportunity to weave Daredevil and his cast of characters into the MCU’s complicated timeline.
Courtesy of some set photos and videos from @DDevilUpdates on Twitter, we now know that at least part of the show’s narrative will take place in 2020. For the most attentive Marvel fans, many will recognize 2020 as three years after Thanos’ Snap in Avengers: Infinity War, which means there’s a strong likelihood that some of the show will take place while the Earth is reeling from losing 50% of its population. This would be the first time that Marvel has portrayed the direct events of the Blip from a street-level perspective, which would make Born Again the perfect show to do so considering Matt Murdock’s legal expertise would make him privy to some of the systemic conversations regarding the Snap and the eventual Blip.
The possibility that the show takes place during the five years between Infinity War and Endgame could also explain the lack of Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll, who played Foggy Nelson and Karen Page respectively. Both Foggy and Karen are massive players in Daredevil’s wider mythos so it always felt a little strange that neither of them would be returning. While there’s nothing that yet confirms a return for either one of them, it would be fascinating to see Matt dealing with losing both of them during the Blip, which could put him in a very emotionally distraught place by the beginning of the show.
The Inverse Analysis — The possibility of Daredevil: Born Again tackling the Blip from a grounded perspective is exactly the kind of cosmic misfortune the character always finds himself at the heart of. Even if it’s just a portion of the show that takes place during this time period, it would be a great opportunity to showcase the kind of interconnected wider-universe storytelling that will separate this incarnation from its predecessor.
