Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, Netflix, TV | Tagged: daredevil, Echo, Marvel Studios, mcu

Daredevil: Vincent D'Onofrio on Move to Make Netflix Series MCU Canon

Daredevil & Echo star Vincent D'Onofrio on when he believes the decision was made for "Born Again" to embrace the Netflix series' canon.

It's not like the signs weren't already there, but Marvel Studios' Alaqua Cox & Vincent D'Onofrio-starring Echo really drove home the point that Netflix's Charlie Cox & D'Onofrio-starring Daredevil series was now officially in the MCU's "sacred timeline." That means that Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle/Punisher canon will be coming over with him when he joins Charlie Cox & D'Onofrio in Daredevil: Born Again. Looking at the big picture, that also brings Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders into the fold – something fans have been actively working to see happen since the original Netflix series ended their respective runs. Granted, that last part is strictly an assumption until we see them appear on our screens. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, D'Onofrio offered some insight into when he believes the final decision was made to go all-in when it came to connecting the Netflix & upcoming Disney+ series.

Along with the SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes, "Born Again" saw its production impacted by a major creative change in direction. In October 2023, Dario Scardapane (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, The Punisher) was brought aboard as showrunner, and the co-directing team of Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead (Loki) was tapped to helm the remainder of the season. As D'Onofrio sees it, that's when the move was made to embrace Netflix lore. "During our restart of all the creative on 'Daredevil: Born Again,' all the creatives got together and said, 'Look, this is how we've got to do it now,'" D'Onofrio explained. "So we are for sure only speaking about it in terms of being directly connected to the original 'Daredevil,' and that's a great thing. It brings in a lot of cool stories and all the collateral story that happened in those original three seasons. So we now get to start this 'Born Again' situation with all of that history behind us and the outcome of all that history. So we're all talking about 'Daredevil: Born Again' in those terms now.

Daredevil: Echo Post-Credits Scene Gives New Meaning to "Born Again"?

Without giving away too much, the final showdown between Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) and Kingpin finds Maya using the powers of her Choctaw ancestors to venture into Kingpin's mind to rid him of the pain & rage that's fueled him for so long. Okay, got that? Good… because that leads us to the mid-credits scene. Making a getaway to greener pastures on his private jet, a news report about the New York City mayoral race catches his attention. While the reporter discusses how the city is looking for someone who will fight for them, we see a look on Kingpin's face that says that he believes he could be the answer to NYC's problems. For those of you who are comics fans, you know that Fisk has already recently gone down that route post-"Secret Empire" in a storyline that saw Matt Murdock as deputy mayor and Luke Cage running for office (yeah, there was a lot going on).

But why is this situation so different? Because we don't know which Wilson Fisk wants to be mayor heading into Daredevil: Born Again. We knew what Kingpin we were dealing with pre-Echo, so it would be easy to write this off as just a mad power grab on Kingpin's part. But if all of that pain and rage is now gone, who are we dealing with now? Because "Born Again" takes on a totally different meaning if we're dealing with Fisk legitimately believing he can do right by NYC – that he can be his savior. Throw into that mix the possibility that what Maya did may not stick – maybe Fisk's pain and rage are just too great to stay gone forever. And now that we're thinking about it, having Matt Murdock not believing that Fisk has changed and continuing to target him could also be an interesting way to push Fisk back to his old, big-bad ways.

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