Daredevil: Born Again is one of the more exceptional Marvel Cinematic Universe projects because Charlie Cox already starred as Daredevil in an eponymous Netflix series that was MCU-adjacent; a Marvel show not produced by Marvel Studios. Cox was so beloved as The Man Without Fear, that even after that run officially ended, he was brought back by MCU head Kevin Feige.
First, he filmed a cameo for Spider-Man: No Way Home, then he featured in episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Daredevil’s many masks are on display in one scene of Born Again – superhero clothing designer, Luke Jacobson, worked on Daredevil’s outfits in the She-Hulk Disney Plus show.
Charlie Cox’s vigilante hero also had a sensational fight scene opposite the titular anti-hero in the Disney Plus limited series, Echo. The actor even voiced Daredevil in recent animated chapters of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
If anyone in the original Daredevil series was better received than Charlie Cox, it was Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin. His first proper MCU appearance was in Hawkeye, before facing off against Maya Lopez in Echo. Kingpin references a former protégé in the Born Again opener, but that is as far as Echo reaches into this Daredevil season.
Others who are brought from the Marvel-Netflix world into Daredevil: Born Again are Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk, Wilson Bethel as Bullseye, and Jon Bernthal as Punisher. Aside from lifting Daredevil’s thrilling arcs to new heights in its sophomore year, Bernthal took the spotlight as the brutal defender of innocents in his own Punisher show, which ran for two seasons on Netflix. For Born Again, Marvel Studios pulled out all the stops and even reinstated Josie the bartender.
The white painting in the prison basement where Kingpin keeps Vanessa’s ex-boyfriend locked up is the same piece of art that the pair bonded over when they first became a couple in Daredevil Season 1. It is now splattered with blood from the melee between Daredevil, Kingpin, and Bullseye at the end of Daredevil Season 3.
In addition to the Netflix saga, Born Again has many direct links to certified MCU media. A leader from the Tracksuit Mafia is present during Vanessa’s mob boss meeting – Fisk worked with the group in the Hawkeye limited series. It is in that show that Clint Barton watched the Captain America Broadway show, Rogers: The Musical; a billboard can be spotted promoting the musical in Born Again’s first few episodes.
Pym van Dyne’s company logo is also advertised throughout New York City. More than just a mere MCU Easter Egg, this could purposefully signify that even if Evangeline Lilly retires from acting and Ant-Man will rejoin the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in Avengers: Doomsday minus his partner Wasp, Hope van Dyne is still working to better the world without suiting up as a superhero.
During Fisk’s run for mayor of New York, he is critical of Vigilante Registration, since it doesn’t go far enough to solve the masked vigilante problem. The registration is a reference to the Sokovia Accords that were enacted during Captain America: Civil War.
When Matt Murdock is defending White Tiger in court, he relays that one of the cops that the hero helped was Officer Morales, who is likely to be Miles Morales’ father. That version of Spider-Man has a dad who is a police officer, however, he usually goes by Jefferson Davis, not Jefferson Morales (Morales is Miles’ mom’s maiden name). While neither Miles nor his father has been spotted in the MCU thus far, Miles' uncle, Aaron Davis, was played by Donald Glover in Spider-Man: Homecoming.
In the fourth episode, Matt represents a low-level thief who asks if he can blame his theft of caramel corn on a Skrull. This confirms that Skrulls are still on ordinary people’s minds following the events of Secret Invasion.
When Matt submits his loan proposal to a New York bank, the Assistant Manager he meets with is Yusuf Khan, Ms. Marvel’s father. Unlike Daredevil, who has a secret identity, Kamala isn’t exactly hiding her superhero persona. Yusef tells Matt that his daughter is Ms. Marvel, but he is not familiar with her heroic exploits, considering the Ms. Marvel limited series unfolds in New Jersey and most of The Marvels takes place off-world.
When Matt takes out a robber and opens the vault with his heightened hearing, Yusef asks him what kind of lawyer he is – Daredevil responds “a really good one”. In Spider-Man: No Way Home, when he is counseling Peter Parker, Matt catches a brick thrown through the window. Peter asks how he did that, Matt answers “I’m a really good lawyer.”
Vigilante videos are circulating throughout the Born Again plotline. One shows the Swordsman apprehending some thugs - he was an unexpected ally of Clint Barton and Kate Bishop in the Hawkeye show. Hawkeye was famously Kingpin’s proper arrival in the MCU. Given his past associations with corrupt individuals, Jack Duquesne doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Kingpin, and now is on the mayor's list since Fisk knows Jack is the vigilante Swordsman.
Toward the end of the season, there is a great callback to the original Netflix series. Matt finds Foggy’s “Avocados at Law” plaque, which is an inside joke between the two best friends, alluding to the time Foggy drunkenly said “avocados” instead of the Spanish word for lawyers, “abogado”.
The end-credit sequence focuses on The Punisher, foreshadowing his own Disney Plus one-off special. The only Marvel Special Presentations to release on the streaming service were Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which both came out in 2022. The Punisher’s standalone show is set to land in 2026, along with the second season of Daredevil: Born Again.