Marvel Studios shockingly changed the identity of the superhero widely considered Netflix's best, shaking up the character ahead of an upcoming crossover movie that will bridge the MCU's theatrical side with its street-level. Daredevil was the biggest part of the Defenders Saga's move into the MCU, and with Daredevil: Born Again now two seasons deep on Disney+, Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock has been pushed somewhere the Netflix series never took him.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 closed with Matt outing himself as Daredevil in open court during Karen Page's trial. He testified under oath, threw his cane across the courtroom, and caught it with perfect precision in front of everyone, then finished the episode in handcuffs and was eventually put in prison. Showrunner Dario Scardapane and Marvel Television boss Brad Winderbaum have now confirmed there is no plan to walk it back. Matt's identity is out, and Season 3 will be built on that.
This reveal precedes the next time that Marvel's Netflix universe will interact with the core MCU storyline, which will take place in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The film is already set to feature a mainstay of Marvel's street-level heroes, The Punisher, though rumors of Daredevil making a quick appearance have run rampant.
If the Devil of Hell's Kitchen does rear his cowl, his identity being out in the open is sure to have implications on his relationship with Spider-Man after they last interacted in No Way Home.
Speaking on the official Daredevil: Born Again podcast, Winderbaum laid out how the decision to expose Matt came together. He noted that it was a creative decision that Marvel Studios leadership quickly bought into once they "could point back to the source material":
"Kevin and Lou are amazing storytellers, you don't build the MCU if you're not some of the greatest of all time, and very quickly they saw it was where the story needed to go. And, of course, we could point to the comics. So as soon as you could point to the source material and show how it plays out and all the stories that are able to be told after the reveal of the identity, it becomes an easier argument to make."
Scardapane then jumped in and made it clear that there will be no cosmic reset, telling fans, "we're not doing buybacks," and that everyone in the city now knows Matt is Daredevil.
"But we're probably not going to be doing Purple Man doing mass brainwashing of an entire city to buy it back. We're not doing buybacks. If you're taking that step, now everyone in the city knows Matt is Daredevil, which changes the storytelling in Season 3 in such a cool way."
The Purple Man reference is to a comic where Kilgrave undoes Matt Murdock's reveal. Marvel Studios used a very similar trick with Peter Parker at the end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Doctor Strange's spell pulled Peter's identity out of the world's memory and gave the character a clean slate. Matt is not getting that. The Hell's Kitchen vigilante has been outed, disbarred, and locked up beside the evil people he helped put away.
Whether this narrative symmetry between Peter Parker and Matt Murdock could be addressed in Brand New Day remains to be seen, but could make for some interesting conflict for Spider-Man given his sacrifice being the polar opposite of Daredevil's.
Marvel Studios Has Altered the Lives of 3 Other Major Netflix Heroes
Daredevil is not the only Netflix hero Marvel Studios has rewritten. Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones returned in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 after a seven-year absence, and her introduction immediately repositioned the character. She is now a mother to a young daughter named Danielle, and the show confirmed that Luke Cage is the father, which lines up with the comics. One of Jessica Jones' major scenes in Season 2 had her defending Danielle from Mr. Charles' men.
Jessica's powers also work differently now. After Danielle was born, Jessica's strength has not been the same, and Episode 6 showed her struggling to land a clean punch without hurting her own hand. The Jessica Jones who closed out her Netflix series in 2019 was a lone wolf private investigator allergic to attachment. The Jessica Jones the MCU reintroduced has a child to protect and a body that no longer cooperates the way it used to.
There's also Mike Colter's Luke Cage, who made his MCU return in the Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 finale. The version that walked back through Jessica's door is not the Luke Cage who ended his Netflix series as the new sheriff figure of Harlem. He spent the time since doing overseas missions for Mr. Charles, the CIA fixer played by Matthew Lillard, in exchange for the safety of Jessica and Danielle. Luke comes home as a father, a partner, and a man doing some very shady stuff to keep his family safe.
Marvel Studios effectively skipped the Harlem chapter that the Netflix show closed on and pushed Luke into a new role. With Finn Jones' Iron Fist also reported for Season 3, the show is putting the pieces together for a proper Marvel Studios-era Defenders reunion, but each of those characters is showing up in a different place than where Netflix left them.
Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle is in a different place, too. The Punisher: One Last Kill, a Marvel Television Special Presentation, released on Disney+ on Tuesday, May 12, and picking up with Frank after his Season 1 Born Again arc, where he was arrested by Kingpin's Anti-Vigilante Task Force but eventually broke out.
Frank needed to land in a place that lines up with his appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day this summer, which is another new terrain for the character. It marks his first theatrical MCU appearance. One Last Kill gave Frank Castle his biggest test yet as he faced one of his deadliest foes from the comics.
After the fallout with Ma Gnucci and her crime family, Frank was fully formed as The Punisher once again. The Punisher mantle has somewhat been in flux across Frank's appearances, so having him embrace the title for the entirety of Brand New Day will creating an interesting dynamic, particularly in contrasting his methods against Spider-Man.
Should Daredevil make the jump over to the big screen as well, Spider-Man: Brand New Day could be primed to take some of Marvel's Netflix characters in daring new directions.
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.
