A showrunner from Netflix's Daredevil series shared his thoughts on whether Disney+'s upcoming Phase 5 series, Daredevil: Born Again, is a true Season 4.
After Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio were officially brought into the MCU to play Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, one question immediately began popping up - will this new Disney+ series be canon with the events of the Defenders Saga?
Fans have engaged in passionate debate about this topic for years on end, and those chats have vigorously resurfaced since Cox appeared as Daredevil in both Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Netflix showrunner Steven DeKnight even admitted that he had "no idea" whether the two stories would be canon or not, and with just over a year until Born Again hits Disney+, the question is still as prevalent as ever.
Netflix Showrunner Addresses Daredevil Canon Status
In an interview with ScreenRant, Daredevil Season 3 showrunner Erik Oleson shared his opinion on whether his series is canon with the MCU's new Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again.
Sharing his support for the MCU team, he looked back to the way the Netflix series used pieces of the Born Again comic run in Season 3 while also noting that he will "still call [Daredevil: Born Again] season 4" no matter what happens:
"I’m rooting for them. I don’t have any inside information for you. I knew it was going to happen just from rumblings through friends in the grapevine of the Marvel family. But I really don’t know what they’re planning yet. We used pieces of 'Born Again' in our season. I still call ['Daredevil: Born Again'] season 4, but they’re trying to insist it isn’t, so I’ll go along with whatever they want to call it."
Oleson also celebrated Cox and D'Onofrio getting the chance to "make more of the show," looking forward to seeing what they put forward when everything is finished:
"I’m very happy that Charlie [Cox] and Vincent, and hopefully more of our Marvel friends, will get a chance to go make more of the show. I’m a huge fan of them; I’m a huge fan of the show. I look forward to seeing what it is. I hope it’s great, let me put it that way."
Charlie Cox previously shared his thoughts on the matter as well, calling this series "a new beginning" and thinking that it's "going to be totally different" than what was done on Netflix:
"I don’t know anything. I haven’t seen a script… My feeling is, based on the title ‘Born Again,’ I think that the sense is it is a new beginning, it is going to be different, it is going to be totally different. It is going to be new stories, and new ideas."
He also looked back to chats he had with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, in which Feige noted that Born Again "is a Season 1" and "not a Season 4:"
"It is a Season 1, it is not Season 4, so it is a whole new thing. Which I think is the way to go. If you are going to do it again, do it differently."
Will Netflix Series & Daredevil: Born Again Be Canon?
At this point in time, it's impossible to predict whether the Netflix Daredevil show will truly be canon with the events of Daredevil: Born Again.
When Daredevil came into the story during She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters seemingly had no idea who the character was even with her fourth-wall-breaking abilities - one indication that he's never been heard of before in the MCU story.
This is clearly an issue that isn't going away anytime soon for the series - in fact, Marvel has had issues internally deciding what to tell fans in terms of what's canon and what isn't for Daredevil.
The subject may not be officially touched in-universe until Daredevil: Born Again makes its full debut, and even then, there are no guarantees that some fans will get the answers they want to hear.
Daredevil: Born Again is currently filming and is set to arrive on Disney+ in Spring 2024.
