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Daredevilis one of Marvel’s most iconic heroes, and when the character’s self-titled Netflix series debuted in 2015, it was a major television event. Seen as a marked improvement over the 2003 Ben Affleck-led film, this new version of Daredevil kicked off a brief but successful period of Marvel television series on Netflix that came to an end in 2019, with the dawn of the MCU’s Disney+ era. With how popular both Daredevil the series and the character were, it is no shock that Disney+ greenlitDaredevil: Born Again, a nine-episode series that premieres on Jun 20, 2025.
Instead of a reboot,Daredevil: Born Againwill continue the storyline from the original three-season seriesand is bringing back many returning favorites, including Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin. Plus, beforeDaredevil: Born Again, shows likeShe-Hulk: Attorney at Law,Hawkeye, andEchofilled audiences in on what happened to various Daredevil characters following the series' cancelation.
Given that it has been seven years since Daredevil concluded its run on Netflix and many more Marvel projects, everyone likely needs a refresher. Here is everything to remember about Daredevil beforeDaredevil: Born Again.
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil’s Origin
Daredevilbegan following the early years of Matt Murdock’s vigilante career, where he wore a simple black cloth suit and mask. Matt Murdock was born to boxer Jack Murdock and nun Maggie Grace. Maggie, fearingher post-partum depressionwas a punishment by God for leaving her duties to the church, left and returned to life as a nun, with Matt Murdock believing his mother to be dead. At the age of nine,chemicals fell into Matt’s eyes, blinding him.
Shortly after, Matt’s father was killed by a mobster as revenge for failing to take a fall in a boxing match. Matt was raised in an orphanage. There,he meets a fellow blind man, Stick, who trains Matt to master his other senses. Stick hoped to raise and train Matt to fight in a future war, one that plays off later in Matt’s life.
Matt later attends Columbia Law School and meets his roommate, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, his best friend and eventual business partner. In college,Matt also meets Elektra Natchios, the daughter of a diplomat with her own dark secret: she is another one of Stick’s protegees who is sent to recruit Matt into this upcoming war. Matt and Elektra date but break up due to Matt not giving in to his more violent tendencies.
After college, Matt and Foggyopened up their small law firm, Nelson & Murdock, to help clients who otherwise could not afford legal counsel. This is also whenMatt becomes a vigilante to fight crime in New York, originally dubbed the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
Kingpin’s History
Wilson Fisk came from a lower working-class family and was often subject to his father’s verbal and physical abuse. One night, when Fisk father was beating his mother, the future Kingpin of crime killed his father with a hammer. Fisk’s mother helped him cover up the murder and sent him to live on a farm with some of his family before Fisk traveled abroad, even living in Asia for a short time. He later returned to New York with a plan to fix his beloved Hell’s Kitchen and build a new, better version of it. Kingpin’s drive to amass power has always been in the pursuit of a desire to fix New York as he sees fit, explaining why he wants to run for Mayor of New York inDaredevil: Born Again.
Fisk began to amass power in the 2000s, including partnering with the Tracksuit Mafia and their leader, William Lopez,becoming an uncle figure to his daughter, Maya Lopez. After Maya’s father dies at the hand of Clint Barton under the Ronin persona, Kingpin forges the adult Maya Lopez into one of his top enforcers and sees her as the closest thing to the family he has. Shortly after the battle of New York, Fisk begins working with Eleanor Bishop due to her husband’s debts to him. Then, in 2015, he began his plans to rebuild Hell’s Kitchen. He meets Vanessa Marianna, an art dealer he falls madly in love with and will do anything for. Fisk becomes attached to a particular painting at Vanessa’s gallery, a blank white canvas called “Rabbit in a Snow Storm” that resembles the wall that Fisk’s father made him look at while his mother was getting abused.
Daredevil Seasons 1 Through 3 Explained
DaredevilSeason 1 follows the rise of both Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk into their iconic personas, Daredevil and The Kingpin, respectively. This is where Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson first meet Karen Page, a woman framed for murder by New York’s organized crime. Matt, Foggy, and New York Bulletin reporter, Ben Urich, cleared Karen’s name, and she decides to pay them back by working for Nelson & Murdock for free.
Matt uses his Daredevil persona to go after Fisk, Foggy, and Karen, and they team up with Ben Urich to find out about Fisk’s background. This results in Fisk murdering Urich after he discovers the reporter talked to his mother. Things culminate in an epic battle between Kingpin and Daredevil, who is now wearing his signature red suit.Fisk is arrested, and the citizens of New York give Matt’s alter ego his Daredevil name.
Season 2 is split into two arcs. It kicks off when various criminal organizations are being brutally murdered.What is originally believed to be a gangland war is, in fact, a one-man war on crime being taken on byFrank Castle / The Punisher.Castle’s family was killed due to gang land violence, and he is seeking revenge. In Episode 4, after various fights and philosophical debates between Daredevil and the Punisher,Castle is captured by the police, and his trial becomes a major focus of the season.
However, as Matt is supposed to be focusing on the case and potentially beginning a relationship with Karen Page, Elektra re-enters his life. Elektra needs Matt’s help investigating a mysterious hole being dug in a New York construction site that has ties to an evil ninja-death cult, The Hand.Matt finds himself pulled in two directions, having to prepare for The Punisher case while also being drawn into Elektra’s case, eventually investing more into her.Elektra dies in battle, and Matt Murdock decides to give up being Daredevil, but before doing so, he tells Karen Page his secret. Meanwhile, The Punisher escapes prison, partially thanks to the work of Wilson Fisk / The Kingpin, and goes on a new mission to find out a dark conspiracy behind how his family died.
Marvel’s The Defenders Saga in Order: How to Watch Chronologically and by Release Date
The Defenders Saga includes seven combined series and 166 episodes of television. That’s a lot to sort through, so here is the ultimate watch guide.
The Defenders
Daredevil’s story continues inThe Defenders, an eight-episode crossover event betweenDaredevil,Jessica Jones,Luke Cage, andIron Fist. The four super-powered individuals realize various connections they all have to one another, notably that Danny Rand / Iron Fist is supposed to be the leader of The Chaste, the organization that Stick tried to recruit Daredevil and Elektra.Elektra is resurrected by The Hand to be The Black Sky, the ultimate weapon.
While originally a mindless drone, Elektra regains consciousness and becomes the new leader. Daredevil and Elektra have an epic fight, but Matt’s love for Elektra wins out in the end.The two sacrifice themselvesas a building falls around them. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Matt’s friends Foggy and Karen believe Matt Murdock to be dead. However,Matt is last seen lying in a church hospital bed, being taken care of by his mother.
DaredevilSeason 3 sees Matt now looking to walk away from his life as Daredevilbut also push away his friends, even walking away from his faith when he discovers that Sister Mary was, in fact, his mother and he was lied to his entire life. Wilson Fisk becomes an informant for the FBI and can convince them to move him to a secure penthouse location where he will be under house arrest as he is in danger in prison.
However,it was all a ploy by Fisk to get himself out of prison and into a position where he could begin blackmailing various members of the FBI. While under house arrest, he truly is the one in control and eventually is able to manipulate and threaten enough people to get all his charges dropped, and he can marry Vanessa. After trying to go after Fisk in court and failing, Matt Murdock eventually decides to become Daredevil again to stop him. However,Kingpin has thrown a new wrinkle in as he has hired an FBI agent with a love of killing to pose as Daredevil and commit crimes, tarnishing his name.
DaredevilSeason 3 ended with Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk forming an uneasy alliance.Daredevilhad this trend where each season a new character discovered Matt’s secret identity, with Foggy discovering it in the middle of Season 1, Karen at the end of Season 2, and Fisk in the middle of Season 3.With the threat of his arch-enemy knowing his secret identity and possibly targeting his loved ones, Matt is initially going to kill him. However, after a brutal beatdown, Daredevil stops himself as his Catholic belief in redemption and not taking a life kicks in. He cuts a deal with Fisk.
In exchange for Fisk promising to leave Foggy Nelson and Karen Page alone and go to prison, Matt Murdock won’t pursue legal charges against Wilson’s wife Vanessa, who earlier in the season had Matt Murdock’s key witness killed before he could take the stand and testify against Fisk. Fisk agreesand goes to prison, with Vanessa left to watch and seemingly now in charge of her husband’s estate.
Explained: Is the MCU’s Kingpin Really That Powerful?
Following Fisk’s return in Hawkeye and Echo, here’s an examination of how powerful the MCU’s Kingpin is.
What Happened to Daredevil and Kingpin After the Original Series Ended?
Due to Netflix’s deal with Marvel regarding the development of The Defenders Saga, Marvel could not use any of the characters for two years after their cancelation. This meant that Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist were off the board until 2020, while Jessica Jones and The Punisher became available to Marvel in 2021. Shortly after the deadline, Marvel began reincorporating the most popular series,Daredevil, into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In just two back-to-back days,Marvel fans saw the return of Daredeviland Kingpin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in different projects. On July 28, 2025,the penultimate episode ofHawkeyeended with the reveal that the villain behind the series was none other than The Kingpin, with Vincent D’Onofrio reprising his role. The next day,Spider-Man: No Way Homeopened in theaters, andCharlie Cox guest starred as Matt Murdock, hinting at his Daredevil persona.
Daredevil later had a guest spot onShe-Hulk: Attorney at Lawin 2022, showing a more carefree side to the character. He and Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk, another superhero lawyer, hooked up and began a brief fling. ThenEcho, a spin-off ofHawkeyefollowing Wilson Fisk’s adopted niece Maya Lopez, revealed that Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock survived Thanos snap. After Maya Lopez discovers Fisk double-crossed her father and led to his death, she shoots Fisk in the head, leaving him for dead at the end ofHawkeye.
Fisk recovers and decides to bring Maya Lopez back into his life. YetMaya rejects Fisk, and he lashes out, targeting her family.Maya uses the powers of her ancestorsto open Fisk’s mind to an out-of-body experience, going to a dark corner of his psyche.This event shakes Fisk and leaves Maya, getting on a plane bound for New York, where he watches a broadcast regarding the upcoming New York Mayoral race, setting upDaredevil: Born Again.
