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 it was resurrected by Disney+, and it’s still as timely as ever.
In the wake of Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) declaring martial law in New York City and outlawing crime-fighting, he’s established the violent Anti-Vigilante Task Force that’s locking citizens up without due process. The brutal police force in Season 2 has eerie shades of ICE detaining people and using violence against protesters, despite being written nearly two years ago.
“Any kind of reflection on reality is coincidental, but Stan Lee said Marvel reflects the world outside our window. Sometimes things just take on a life of their own,” Brad Winderbaum, executive producer and head of Marvel Television, told Variety at the New York premiere Monday night.
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In the Season 2 premiere, the task force is destroying local businesses on Fisk’s orders and cracking down on vigilantes prowling the streets. They’re looking for Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and already locked up Swordsman (Tony Dalton) and many others; Jon Bernthal’s Punisher escaped his imprisonment in the Season 1 post-credits scene.
“Being a New Yorker, what we are doing in the second season would truly be frightening for a New Yorker,” said D’Onofrio. “There are aspects about what we do now in the second season that are scary to think about if they were real.”
Journalist BB Urich (Genneya Walton) is also publishing pro-Fisk propaganda videos that boast about crime reduction, and a disguised Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) goes undercover to learn inside secrets from her. And despite Matt Murdock being 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 in the East River. Daredevil stops Kingpin’s shipment, which was ordered by Matthew Lillard‘s mysterious power player, Mr. Charles. Not much is known about him, but it’s clear he has some powerful friends after he namedrops Julia Louis Dreyfus’ CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in his introduction.
“It’s incredible to be a part of that kind of project that’s reflecting what’s happening in the world right now,” said Lillard, who’s making his Marvel debut with Season 2. “Our hope is that, in some small part of us, you’re sitting at home and realizing we need superheroes. And that’s common people. People standing up for what’s right in the world. Standing up for your neighbors and your friends and doing what’s right. Hopefully, there’s a piece of this that is a wake up call, that’s a battle cry for everyday citizens to do the right thing and fight the oppression that a lot of people right now are feeling in America.”
The episode ends with a bloody fight scene between Daredevil and Kingpin’s forces. A group of cops breaks into ex-NYPD Officer Cherry’s (Clark Johnson) apartment when they learn he has ties to the vigilante. They tie Cherry up and beat him, but Daredevil swoops in to save him — almost. As Daredevil pummels the cops, his heightened senses hear Cherry’s faltering heartbeat, and he loses his upper hand in the fight. The officers unmask the hero, but projectiles suddenly ricochet through the window and across the room into the vital organs of the enemies. Wilson Bethel’s sharpshooter Bullseye has returned and saved Daredevil, but Cherry’s life still hangs in the balance.
If it wasn’t clear in the first season, “Daredevil: Born Again” isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty in Season 2. It’s by far the most violent series on Disney+ and drops its fair share of F-bombs as well as bone-crunching punches. As it continues to reflect the darkness of the real world, Winderbaum is grateful for Disney’s support as they begin shooting Season 3.
“Disney is a company that’s run by the artists. It really is,” he said. “It sounds corny, but I know these people and I really feel like it’s as true as it was in Walt’s time. They really support the creatives. It’s a difficult thing to do at this scale, but they’ve never once told us we can’t do something.”
