Daredevil: Born Again season 2 just premiered on Disney+, with Wilson Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) playing a central role this year as the mayor continues to enact his brutal vision of outlawing vigilantism.
During an interview with ScreenRant‘s Liam Crowley for Daredevil: Born Again season 2, showrunner Dario Scardapane acknowledged the similarities between the AVTF storyline and real-world events like the raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), even though these episodes were written a year and a half ago.
As he described it, “You build this story, the rise of an autocrat, the militia that he creates, and then you’re in post and you’re seeing something in post that looks exactly what you saw on the newscast.” The showrunner called the parallels “really chilling.”
In the writers’ room, Scardapane and his team were looking at the task force and the rise of an autocrat through the lens of history, but “now it’s playing outside. It’s art imitates life…history repeats itself.“
“The funny thing is that you write something a year and a half ago that includes imagery from 10 years ago and you build this story, the rise of an autocrat, the militia that he creates, and then you’re in post and you’re seeing something in post that looks exactly what you saw on the newscast. And it’s really chilling. It’s not a very pleasant experience. And the conversations we kept having are kind of like, ‘We told this story that’s kind of from a historical perspective of the rise of an autocrat and now it’s playing outside.’ It’s art imitates life. And again, it kind of tells you history repeats itself.”
Superhero stories have always been political in nature, and Daredevil is no different. Executive producer Sana Amanat said that at Marvel, they’re always telling stories about “what’s happening out in the world.” Telling a story about the rise of an autocrat is a “classic historical tale of when evil men rise.”
In the world of Daredevil: Born Again, Fisk/Kingpin represents that trope of an evil person taking control of the system. When something like that happens, the inevitable next step is that the people rise up against him, which is what the character of Matt Murdock/Daredevil represents.
According to Amanat, Marvel stories are at their best when they’re leaning into metaphors and real-world comparisons. It felt natural to continue that trend with Daredevil: Born Again. A lot of Marvel projects rely on fantastical elements and science fiction, but Daredevil is a show that’s more grounded in brutal reality.
The executive producer praised the storyline that Daredevil: Born Again is telling this season because fans are able to root for Murdock as he rallies “the power of the collective, the power of all of these individuals coming together to fight for justice and freedom and for their own rights.”
“It is the thing that we do at Marvel too, is that we always tell stories about what’s happening out in the world. And, again, we’re telling a story about the rise of an autocrat, which is a classic historical tale of when evil men rise. I think Kingpin could be considered an evil man who now controls the system. And now the story is about the people rising up against him and his empire, and Daredevil represents that. I think Marvel stories are great when they’re about metaphor. I also think the idea of Daredevil rallying the power of the collective, the power of all of these individuals coming together to fight for justice and freedom and for their own rights, I think is really fantastic. And that’s really what we’ve done so many times at Marvel. So it makes sense to do it here.”
The Star Wars series Andor faced similar real-world comparisons when its second and final season was released in early 2025, mere months into the current U.S. presidential administration. Like with Daredevil, the scripts for Andor were written well before the 2025 inauguration.
Along with Scardapane and Amanat, their team of producers also includes Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Matt Corman, Chris Ord, Chris Gary, Brad Winderbaum, Louis D’Esposito and Iain B. MacDonald.
Daredevil: Born Again stars Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Margarita Levieva, Matthew Lillard, Clark Johnson, Ayelet Zurer and Wilson Bethel. The second season will also see Krysten Ritter reprising her fan-favorite character Jessica Jones from the Netflix series of the same name.
The first season ended with Fisk imposing martial law and launching his task force, while Murdock gathered his team to fight back against the mayor.
Daredevil: Born Again season 2 opened with the heroes beginning their crusade against Fisk. Fans will continue seeing parallels to real-world events as the rest of the eight-episode season unfolds in the coming weeks, with the finale set for May 5.
Daredevil: Born Again season 2 streams every Tuesday at 9 p.m. EDT on Disney+.
- Release Date
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March 4, 2025
- Network
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Disney+
- Showrunner
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Dario Scardapane
- Directors
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Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, David Boyd, Jeffrey Nachmanoff
- Writers
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Jesse Wigutow, Jill Blankenship, Thomas Wong, David Feige, Grainne Godfree