The bigger the Marvel Universe gets, the harder it becomes to keep track of the timeline, a problem especially prevalent in the projects that serve as sequels to multiple Marvel stories. The latest phase of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe has been chock full of such adventures, from 2024’s The Marvels to the most recent Captain America movie. Few have succeeded in synthesizing all their disparate storylines, but with Daredevil: Born Again, Marvel has one more chance to get it right.
That said, Born Again might also have the most Marvel homework to cram together. The Disney+ series is a revival of Netflix’s original Daredevil, and a sequel, of sorts, to three different MCU shows. It doesn’t help that Daredevil’s place in canon hasn’t been completely clarified, making Charlie Cox’s return all the more confusing. So what parts of Daredevil’s past are actually canon, and which could play a role in the new show? Here’s everything you need to remember about the hero’s Marvel history before Daredevil: Born Again hits Disney+.
Daredevil
Daredevil ran for three seasons roughly a decade ago, so it’s unlikely Born Again will directly reference every plot point. Still, it’s good to remember the series’ broad strokes, especially the characters who populated it. Daredevil follows Matt Murdock (Cox) on a quest to save New York City — and especially his home turf, Hell’s Kitchen — from crime and corruption. By night, he fights small-time crooks as Daredevil, but by day he works with his old college bestie, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), as a public defender. In Season 1, they gain a new ally in Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), a paralegal haunted by her tragic past.
Throughout the series, our trio faces off with crooked cops, crime lords, and immortal ninjas, but their prime antagonist is, and likely always will be, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Everything always leads back to Fisk: his criminal enterprise is ever-reaching, destroying the lives of countless New Yorkers and triggering villain origin stories for a handful of comic characters. Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), aka the Punisher, is introduced in Daredevil’s second season as a man looking for revenge against Fisk. In Season 3, it’s Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel) who becomes a pawn in Fisk’s quest for power. And while Daredevil manages to defeat Fisk time and again, the Kingpin has a way of bouncing back.
Daredevil Season 3 wrapped on a high note for its heroes, but it also set up a major villain. Poindexter is paralyzed in a fight with Fisk, but an experimental surgery seems to restore his ability to walk... and may have even made him invincible. Matt, Foggy, and Karen, meanwhile, decide to start their own law practice: Nelson, Murdock & Page. Their firm stands strong in Daredevil: Born Again, while Poindexter will appear in the revival as a fully realized Bullseye.
The Defenders
The Defenders takes place between Daredevil Seasons 2 and 3, so its loose threads have more or less been resolved. Still, Daredevil’s brush with Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) is still worth recapping. The street-level heroes must unite to take down the Hand, an ancient syndicate working to take over New York. The Hand’s master plan involved dragons, evil ninjas, and Matt’s resurrected ex, Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung), which took the once-grounded Netflix universe in a surprisingly mystical direction. What happened in The Defenders probably won’t factor into Born Again, but if Marvel wants to bring back Elektra or any of the Defenders, it’ll have to reference the mini-series sooner or later.
Spider-Man, She-Hulk, and Echo
Netflix canceled Daredevil — and the rest of the Defenders-centered shows — in 2019, but Marvel brought Daredevil into the MCU not long after. In 2021, Cox made a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but his place in canon was still murky. Things got a bit clearer with Hawkeye, which premiered on Disney+ just a few months later. The series featured Wilson Fisk as a major villain, and focused on his toxic father-daughter bond with a new character, Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox). After secretly arranging her father’s murder, Fisk adopted Maya and brought her up in the “family business.” Maya later learns of Fisk’s betrayal and shoots him point-blank, but Fisk survives; though he does sport an eye patch when he returns in Echo.
Daredevil next appeared in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, where the 2022 series reestablished Matt Murdock in the MCU as a lawyer and a crimefighter freelancing on the West Coast. He suits up to assist She-Hulk, aka Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), on a minor expedition. The unlikely duo even enjoy a brief fling before Matt returns to New York.
Fisk, meanwhile, would go on to play a much bigger role in Echo. He and Maya face off throughout the series, but their resolution in Echo’s season finale may be the most important detail to remember. Maya uses her newfound powers to heal Fisk’s injured eye, bring him back to his past, and help him let go of his childhood traumas. But Echo also sets up a major conflict for Daredevil: Born Again, spotlighting Fisk’s decision to run for public office. Born Again will pick up shortly after these events.
Is Daredevil MCU canon?
While Daredevil and Kingpin have each been introduced to the MCU, Marvel has been frustratingly coy about the role Daredevil actually plays in Marvel canon. For a long time, Daredevil and other Netflix shows existed in their own universe. Even as Matt Murdock cameoed in new MCU projects, there was a sense that this was a new version of the character. Born Again seemed to confirm that in its early stages: Cox, D’Onofrio, and Jon Bernthal (who played Frank Castle in Daredevil and The Punisher) were the only cast members set to return. Born Again had even recast a key role, while other actors hadn’t been asked back.
After a major creative overhaul, however, Marvel walked back its most controversial plans for the series and integrated Daredevil and the Defenders shows into the official Marvel timeline. With the original cast restored and a more faithful revival planned, Born Again retroactively makes Netflix’s Daredevil canon to the MCU.
According to Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s head of streaming, Daredevil does take place in Earth-616. “I can say that up until this point, we’ve been a little bit cagey about what’s Sacred Timeline, what’s not Sacred Timeline,” Winderbaum told Screen Rant in 2024. “Now that we see how well integrated the stories are, I think that I personally, Brad Winderbaum, would be confident in saying it is part of the Sacred Timeline.”
This is all well and good, but Born Again still has its work cut out for it. There’s no telling how many threads from the Defenders universe, if any, will return. Born Again has a lot of material to pull from, but the question of continuity should finally be resolved once and for all.
