Daredevil Born Again Season 2 Review by Ryan Balkwill

TV Series / May 14, 2026 / Leave a Comment

Plot: Matt Murdock resisting Mayor Wilson Fisk’s corrupt Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) and martial law in New York City. Matt gathers allies, including Jessica Jones, to fight back while navigating a volatile alliance with Bullseye, ultimately exposing Fisk and landing in prison, setting up a new threat.

Season 2 of Daredevil Born Again was Very Good.

Pros: This season was more consistent in terms of tone. It fully focused on vigilante warfare in New York. I like how they fit in the supporting characters into a crowded storyline. Buck and Daniel add more to do in this season. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio brought their best as Matt Murdock & Wilson Fisk respectively. I like Matthew Lillard’s Mr. Charles. It brought back blood into this season. Bullseye became my new favourite and how the finale ended.

Cons: They missed out on a opportunity showcasing Angela del Toro’s powers in the finale. Seeing the Saturn demise of Daniel at the end. There wasn’t a lot of enough Jessica jones in spite of 3 episodes & there were moments that was done definitely,

Genre: Action, Drama

Created by Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman, Chris Ord

Showrunner: Dario Scardapane

Based on Marvel Comics

Starring: Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Margarita Levieva, Matthew Lillard, Tony Dalton, Michael Gandolfini, Nikki M. James, Arty Froushan, Genneya Walton, Zabryna Guevara, Clark Johnson, Ayelet Zurer, Wilson Bethel, Lili Taylor, Elden Henson, Toby Leonard Moore & Krysten Ritter.

Composer  The Newton Brothers

Executive producers: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Matt Corman, Chris Ord, Dario Scardapane, Chris Gary, Sana Amanat, Brad Winderbaum, Louis D’Esposito, Kevin Feige, Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Iain B. MacDonald

Producers: Rudd Simmons, David Chambers

Production Location: New York

Cinematographers: Hillary Fyfe Spera, Pedro Gómez Millán, Jeffrey Waldron

Editors: Cedric Nairn-Smith, Melissa Lawson Cheung, Stephanie Filo, Lyric Ramsey, Yoni Rusnak, Amelia Allwarden

Production companies: Marvel Television

Network: Disney+

Casts & Characters:

Main

  • Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil:
    A blind lawyer with superhuman senses from     Hell’s Kitchen, New York, who leads a double life as a masked vigilante. Murdock forms a resistance group during the season to fight back against Wilson Fisk and his anti-vigilante agenda. Executive producer Brad Winderbaum described Murdock as a revolutionary and a rebel in the season, with the character “go[ing] up against the power of the city”.
  • Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin:
    A powerful businessman and     crime lord who is the mayor of New York City. Winderbaum said Fisk acts like a king when he takes over as mayor, and that “puts him in a new class of power players on the international stage”. Executive producer Sana Amanat said Fisk’s anti-vigilante “Safer Streets Initiative” is everything he hoped to achieve and the season explores whether that is enough for him. D’Onofrio said the season showed Fisk at his most human, and thought it was scary to show that the character is “just like you or I, but he’s very, very dangerous.” D’Onofrio continued wearing a fat suit to portray the character, as he had done since appearing in the Marvel Studios series Hawkeye (2021). However, for the boxing match, he wanted to be able to show some of his arms and shoulders, believing it would be weird to have Fisk fighting in long sleeves. D’Onofrio then began working out his upper body to grow it a few more inches to match the girth of the fat suit at his waist.
  • Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page:
    A former reporter, Murdock’s friend and former partner at the law firm     Nelson, Murdock & Page. Cox said Karen would be part of Murdock’s resistance group during the season, and the pair would be working at night to “find a crack in the armor” while spending their days together waiting, hinting at a possible rekindled romance between the two. Showrunner Dario Scardapane said Page’s evolution is in line with her history in Marvel’s Netflix television seriesDaredevil (2015–2018). He and Woll did not want her to be depicted as a sidekick or girlfriend, with Scardapane describing Page as “somebody who both mirrors and pushes Murdock—not always in the best way”.
  • Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn:
    A therapist and Murdock’s ex-girlfriend who is Fisk’s Mental Health Commissioner. Levieva said that the season sees Glenn “struggling with the aftereffects” of Muse’s attack on her in the     first season, stating that Glenn is “doing her best to put up a front” while focusing on her work as a therapist, which has become her “biggest and only relationship” following her breakup with Murdock.
  • Matthew Lillard as Mr. Charles:
    An influential “power player” who becomes an antagonist for Fisk at the “politics and international diplomacy” level. Lillard said that Charles is “a     CIA spook” who controls power behind the scenes such as helping nations “rise and fall”. He works for CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Lillard described the character as “somebody who bends the ear of very powerful people around the world” and who is unimpressed with Fisk, as Charles is not interested in New York City politics as much as he is in world politics. Lillard added that the character had “this Cheshire Cat sort of energy about him”.
  • Tony Dalton as Jack Duquesne / Swordsman: A wealthy socialite who is secretly a sword-wielding vigilante and was imprisoned by Fisk in the first season
  • Michael Gandolfini as Daniel Blake: Fisk’s protégé and the Deputy Mayor of Communications
  • Nikki M. James as Kirsten McDuffie: A former New York assistant district attorney and Murdock’s former law partner
  • Arty Froushan as Buck Cashman: Fisk’s right-hand man and fixer
  • Genneya Walton as BB Urich:
    A journalist for     The BB Report and the niece of the late Ben Urich. BB disseminates propaganda for Fisk while working undercover to expose him and his crimes. She secretly runs a smear campaign against him through an online program called City Without Fear, which she hosts wearing a caricature mask of Fisk’s face under the alias of “Mayor Kingpin”.
  • Zabryna Guevara as Sheila Rivera: Fisk’s mayoral campaign director
  • Clark Johnson as Cherry: A retired New York Police Department (NYPD) officer who works as an investigator at the Murdock & McDuffie law firm[3]
  • Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk: Wilson’s wife who is part of his criminal empire and the one who orchestrated Foggy Nelson’s assassination
  • Wilson Bethel as Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter / Bullseye:
    A psychopathic assassin and former     FBI agent who is a highly skilled marksman capable of using almost any object as a lethal projectile. Bethel said the season featured new sides to Dex’s personality that had not been seen before, and he was excited for fans to see the “fun, insane stuff” that he got to do with the character in the season. Bethel added that Dex has a “renewed sense of purpose” in what he perceives as a “redemption arc” for himself, despite having a misguided idea of what redemption is.
  • Lili Taylor as Marge McCaffrey: The governor of New York who is a political opponent to Fisk
  • Elden Henson as Franklin “Foggy” Nelson:
    Murdock’s best friend and former law partner who was assassinated by Dex, at the behest of Vanessa, in the first season. The announcement that Henson would return for the second season led to speculation that the series could adapt     Daredevil vol. 2 #88 (legacy #468; August 2006). That issue, by Ed Brubaker, David Aja, and Frank D’Armata, is called “The Secret Life of Foggy Nelson” and depicts Nelson making a deal with the FBI to enter the Witness Protection Program after his apparent murder. Responding to this, director Aaron Moorhead said “dying very often does mean that you’re actually dead” in Born Again‘s street-level stories. The character ultimately appears in flashbacks set before the events of Daredevil. Scardapane said they never intended to follow the “Secret Life” storyline from the comics because it would lessen the impact that Nelson’s death has on Murdock and Page. Despite this, the creative team still wanted to include him in the season, with Amanat explaining that they could not see a Daredevil season without Henson having some involvement.
  • Toby Leonard Moore as James Wesley: Fisk’s former right-hand man and friend who was killed by Page in Daredevil. He appears in flashbacks set before the events of that series.
  • Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones:
    An investigator and former vigilante who becomes Murdock’s resistance ally. Since she was pregnant with her daughter, Danielle, Jones’s powers—which include superhuman strength and limited flying—stop working intermittently. Ritter said it felt like no time had passed since she starred as Jones in Marvel’s Netflix television series     Jessica Jones (2015–2019), and she found it creatively fulfilling to contrast her performance in Born Again with her concurrent role as Mia LaPierre / Lady Vengeance in the series Dexter: Resurrection (2025–present). She said exploring Jones’s life as a mother was an exciting character development, and the new wrinkle with her powers made for an interesting journey. Ritter acknowledged that Jones is more willing to use her powers now, after becoming a mother, compared to her reluctance in the Netflix series, explaining, “I think when you give her a child, there’s a fierceness, a mama bear that comes out and gives her real strength and power… To be bigger and badder than ever as a result of having a child is really exciting.” Cox described Jones as an antihero and said she and Murdock have a mutual respect despite their differing opinions of each other. Amanat said Jones brings an “edginess and lightness” to the season that “cuts through the [bullshit] in a really fun way”.

Recurring

Guest

  • Ty Jones as Alan Steverud: The Attorney General of New York
  • Thomas Cokenias as Achilleo Kyriaco: The captain of the Northern Star
  • Ed Kershen as McDaniel: An NYPD officer working with Kim
  • Susan Varon as Josie: The former owner of Josie’s Bar in Hell’s Kitchen
  • Elizabeth Ward Land as Judy Burch: An art gallery director who worked with Vanessa
  • Nathan Wallace as Lionel “Ray” McCoy: Nelson’s childhood neighbor and bully who later becomes a client of him and Murdock
  • Pej Vahdat as Arash Merati: A surgeon who operates on Vanessa
  • Ruben Ortiz as Jeff Levine: A lawyer who worked at Landman & Zack when Murdock and Nelson were interns there
  • Amy Carlson as Gloria Blake: Daniel’s mother
  • Annabelle and Isabella Ivlev as Danielle Cage: Jones and Luke Cage’s daughter
  • Royce Johnson as Brett Mahoney: An NYPD chief of detectives and ally of Murdock
  • Mike Colter as Luke Cage: Danielle’s father, a former convict with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin who serves as Harlem‘s “sheriff”
  • Geoffrey Cantor as Mitchell Ellison: The editor-in-chief of the New York Bulletin

Additionally, NY1 newscaster Annika Pergament appears as herself, and the character Bastian Cooper / Muse appears as a hallucination seen by Glenn. The season features a photograph of Vondie Curtis-Hall‘s Daredevil character Ben Urich, as well as archive footage from that series of Skylar Gaertner as a young Murdock and John Patrick Hayden as his father “Battlin” Jack Murdock.

I recommend watching this newest season on Disney+.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 Stars

Ryan Balkwill:

Resident TV reviewer,

Level Best Art Cafe

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