Marvel Studios is closing in on a historic crossover of its Netflix heroes, and one crucial MCU event stands between fans and its release. The street-level world that Netflix launched with Daredevil in 2015 found a second life once Charlie Cox returned in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a comeback that eventually grew into Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+. That revival keeps expanding, and its biggest payoff yet must now wait its turn on Marvel’s release calendar.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 will unite Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist for the first time under Marvel Studios, and the season is now confirmed to premiere on Disney+ in March 2027, months after Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens in theaters on July 31. Tom Holland’s fourth solo MCU movie draws from the same Netflix well, featuring Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, the ninja clan known as the Hand, and, according to reports, Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple. The order of those releases means whatever happens in Brand New Day will shape the world the Defenders come home to.
Set photos from Season 3’s New York production revealed Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter, and Finn Jones filming together in April, and Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock completes the quartet that last shared the screen in 2017’s epic eight-episode crossover series The Defenders. Ritter already returned as Jessica Jones in Season 2, with Colter’s Luke Cage also making a brief cameo. Jones’ Danny Rand will be a fresh addition to Season 3. Cameras started rolling in March, picking up after a Season 2 finale that sent Murdock to prison once he revealed his identity to the world.
Brand New Day, meanwhile, gives Frank Castle his first big-screen role after The Punisher: One Last Kill premiered on Disney+ on May 12. Destin Daniel Cretton directed the new Spider-Man movie, which pits a forgotten Peter Parker against a wave of enemies that includes Michael Mando’s Scorpion, a savage version of the Hulk, and the Hand.
The more interesting story here isn’t really the release order, though. It’s how much of Brand New Day could spill directly into Born Again Season 3, since the two projects share villains and the same New York streets.
How Spider-Man: Brand New Day Will Shape Daredevil: Born Again Season 3
Setting Up the Hand
The Hand served as the main threat of Daredevil Season 2 and The Defenders, an ancient organization of ninjas chasing immortality beneath New York. The group’s leadership seemingly perished when Midland Circle collapsed at the end of the crossover series, and no Marvel Studios project touched them again until Brand New Day’s trailers showed them attacking Spider-Man. Their return raises an obvious question about who else comes back with them. An actor who was an integral member of the Hand recently even teased his potential return.
The likelihood of their return received even more credence when set photos and videos from Born Again Season 3 revealed Elodie Yung filming in a new, more comic-accurate Elektra costume. The Hand resurrected Elektra as its living weapon, the Black Sky, in The Defenders, and her fate after Midland Circle was never resolved on screen. If Brand New Day reestablishes the clan and its resurrection rituals in the present-day MCU, Season 3 gets a ready-made explanation for how Elektra walked out of that rubble alive.
New York’s Criminal Underworld
Born Again Season 2 ended with Wilson Fisk’s empire in pieces. His court case fell apart, the attorney general sued him, and he was ordered to step down as mayor of New York City. That leaves a vacuum at the top of the city’s underworld heading into Season 3.
Brand New Day may quietly answer who fills it. Marvin Jones III plays the crime boss Tombstone in the movie, reprising a character he already voiced in the animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and promotional material recently offered a first look at the villain that the trailers kept hidden. If Lonnie Lincoln establishes himself as a power player in Spider-Man’s corner of New York, Born Again Season 3 will need to acknowledge the shift in power dynamics.
Punisher’s Continuation
Frank Castle did not appear in Born Again Season 2, a surprising absence given how central he was to the first season. Marvel instead gave him The Punisher: One Last Kill, a 48-minute special co-written by Bernthal and director Reinaldo Marcus Green, before handing him a major role in Brand New Day, where the marketing puts him and Spider-Man on a collision course.
Frank's next destination after July 31 remains completely up in the air. Born Again Season 3 could bring him back alongside the Defenders, or Marvel could give him another solo project. Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane described One Last Kill as the story of what happened to Frank before and during Season 2, which cleared the runway for the movie to pick his story up and point it wherever Marvel wants next.
Claire Temple’s Potential Return
The most intriguing report of all involves the nurse who held the Netflix universe together. Industry scooper Daniel Richtman reported that Rosario Dawson will reprise her role as Claire Temple in Brand New Day, and insider Jeff Sneider later backed the claim. Marvel Studios is yet to confirm her involvement, so this one still belongs firmly in the rumor column.
It would be a fitting comeback, though. Claire appeared in Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders, patching up every hero on that roster before her final appearance in Luke Cage Season 2. If Dawson really is back for the movie, Born Again Season 3 becomes her natural next stop, since the season revolves around the same four patients she stitched back together across the Netflix era.
Geraldo Amartey is a writer at The Direct. He joined the team in 2025, bringing with him four years of experience covering entertainment news, pop culture, and fan-favorite franchises for sites like YEN, Briefly and Tuko.
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