Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for the Season 2 premiere of Daredevil: Born Again, now streaming on Disney+.
“Daredevil: Born Again” is back a year after being revived by Disney+, and it’s as timely as ever.
After Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) declares martial law in New York City, making crime fighting illegal, he establishes a violent anti-vigilante task force that locks up citizens without due process. Season 2’s brutal police forces have eerie undertones, with ICE detaining people and using violence against protesters, even though it was written almost two years ago.
“Any reflection on reality is coincidental, but director Stan Lee said Marvel reflects the world outside our windows. Sometimes things take on a life of their own,” executive producer and head of Marvel Television Brad Winderbaum told Variety at Monday night’s New York premiere.
In the Season 2 premiere, a special unit is ordered by Fisk to destroy local businesses and crack down on vigilantes roaming the streets. They are looking for Daredevil (Charlie Cox), the already imprisoned Swordsman (Tony Dalton), and many others. The Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal, escapes prison in the post-credits scene of Season 1.
“As a New Yorker, what we’re doing in the second season is going to be really scary for New Yorkers,” D’Onofrio said. “There’s an aspect of what we’re doing now in the second season that would be scary if it were real.”
Journalist BB Urich (Geneya Walton) also releases a pro-Fisk propaganda video boasting about reducing crime, and a disguised Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) goes undercover to get inside secrets from her. And even with Matt Murdock missing, Daredevil is still fighting the good fight against Kingpin. He opens the premiere with a thrilling battle aboard a cargo ship running illegal guns on the East River. Daredevil stops a Kingpin shipment ordered by Mr. Charles, a mysterious power player played by Matthew Lillard. Not much is known about him, but it’s clear he has powerful friends, as he mentions Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s CIA director, in his introduction.
“It’s incredible to be a part of a project that reflects what’s going on in the world right now,” said Lillard, who will make his Marvel debut in Season 2. “Our hope is that there are people out there sitting at home who realize that we need superheroes. And that’s ordinary people. People who are standing up for what’s right in the world. Standing up for their neighbors and friends and doing the right thing. Hopefully, there’s some of that.” This is a wake-up call, a rallying cry for ordinary citizens to do the right thing and fight the oppression that so many people feel in America right now. ”
The episode ends with a bloody battle scene between Daredevil and Kingpin’s army. A group of cops break into Cherry’s (Clark Johnson) apartment after learning that former NYPD officer Cherry (Clark Johnson) has ties to a vigilante group. They tie up and beat Cherry, but Daredevil swoops in to save him. As Daredevil punches the cop, his heightened senses hear Cherry’s trembling heartbeat and he loses the upper hand in the fight. The officers unmask the protagonist, but suddenly a projectile bounces through the window and across the room towards the enemy’s vital organs. Wilson Bethel’s sniper Bullseye returns and saves Daredevil, but Cherry’s life is still in danger.
If it wasn’t obvious in the first season, Daredevil: Born Again isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty in season two. The series is the most violent series on Disney+, and it also drops its fair share of F-bombs and bone-crushing punches. Winderbaum is grateful for Disney’s support as he begins filming season 3, as it continues to reflect the darkness of the real world.
“Disney is a company run by artists, it really is,” he said. “It may sound corny, but I know these guys and it feels as true as it did in Walt’s time. They really support the creators. It’s hard to do this at this scale, but they’ve never told us we can’t do something.”
