Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 has already started offering the MCU connections and references that the Netflix shows never could. As the old Netflix series were developed outside of Marvel Studios by the defunct Marvel Television, their connections to the MCU were, of course, limited. That had many confused whether the Defenders Saga shows were even canon, with it only becoming clear in recent years that they are, in fact, part of the MCU's Sacred Timeline as the story is now continuing years later in Daredevil: Born Again.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 1 featured a major connection to the wider MCU as Avengers Tower (also known as Stark Tower or the Watchtower in previous movies) was spotted in a nighttime shot of the Big Apple. The landmark's inclusion rectifies a recurring mistake from Netflix's Daredevil and the other Defenders Saga series of omitting the key MCU location from the skyline.
After Avengers Tower was sold to an elusive buyer in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, its new owner remained a mystery, with Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin even among those theorized to have acquired the New York landmark.
Thunderbolts* confirmed last year that Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is the new owner, rebranding the building as the Watchtower for O.X.E., her private black ops company.
Avengers Tower's appearance in Daredevil: Born Again redeems a recurring mistake from the Netflix shows in which the building was omitted from the New York skyline, such as in The Punisher.
Of course, the formerly Stark-owned HQ isn't a real building in New York and was added to the skyline in various MCU blockbusters through CGI. That extensive post-production was likely behind its absence from the Netflix series, as such additions were simply beyond their reduced budgets.
Avengers Tower may have been excluded from the New York skyline in the Netflix shows, but that's not to say the shows were ashamed of their place in the MCU.
Going as far back as Daredevil's 2015 motion poster, Avengers Tower was in the background. At that time, the New York skyscraper was still the HQ for Earth's Mightiest Heroes as Season 1 dropped between the first two Avengers flicks.
The tower was sighted again in the Daredevil Season 3 poster, even though the Big Apple's superhero landmark was sold off in 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, one year before the Netflix series returned one last time in October 2018.
For the most part, the Defenders shows were vague on their references to the wider MCU, such as mentioning The Avengers' Battle of New York as "the Incident" and name-dropping various superheroes but never directly.
In the aftermath of Thunderbolts*, the Watchtower now doubles as the New Avengers' HQ and will be seen this year in Avengers: Doomsday, although the MCU landmark may be reversing its latest rebrand.
It's unclear whether Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 lands before or after Thunderbolts* in the MCU timeline, leaving open the question of whether the New Avengers have yet taken their rightful place atop the Watchtower.
Born Again will release new episodes every Tuesday for the coming weeks, and many are hopeful that the MCU references will keep on coming, perhaps bringing more connections to Thunderbolts* as the Void that plagued New York.
Are More MCU Connections Coming in Daredevil: Born Again?
That isn't where the Thunderbolts* connections end in Daredevil: Born Again's sophomore premiere, as Matthew Lillard's Mr. Charles officially has a connection to Valentina, presumably through their mutual employment at the CIA.
Now that Thunderbolts*' new-and-improved Watchtower has appeared in Born Again, many will be hopeful that Valentina is up next. That group includes the Daredevil revival's showrunner Dario Scardapane, who recently confirmed that he has a "story in the back of my head" that could bring Louis-Dreyfus into the fray.
For the most part, Born Again has kept its distance from the wider MCU, hence why no Avengers have appeared in the Disney+ series. That will likely remain the case throughout the Daredevil revival to maintain the high stakes of its grounded, street-level tone, which could be tarnished by too many superhero additions.
Still, Dario Scardapane hinted that Born Again's characters will "take little vacations" elsewhere in the MCU, such as when Jon Bernthal's Punisher tags along for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. While some are disappointed that Charlie Cox's Daredevil and Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin aren't joining him, there's every chance they will get the big screen treatment in a future Spider-Man movie.
