Putting the ‘hell’ in Hell’s Kitchen, a horned menace has risen from the ashes of Netflix’s short-lived Daredevil series, finally bringing Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe on a (hopefully) more permanent basis. Mixing together fresh and familiar faces, Daredevil: Born Again reunited a core cast of Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, and Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/the Punisher with newcomers like Kamar de los Reyes’ Hector Ayala/White Tiger, Genneya Walton’s BB Urich, and Hunter Doohan’s unhinged Muse.
Climbing her way to the top of the ensemble was Ayelet Zurer reprising her role as Vanessa Fisk. The Netflix era Vanessa already showed she was more than just a mild-mannered art dealer, previously teasing her darker side when she had FBI Special Agent Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali) whacked because he threatened her husband’s criminal enterprises. Old habits die hard, and after already taking out the man she’d had an affair with earlier in the series, a Kingpin-ified Vanessa arrived before the final credits rolled.
While Born Again’s penultimate episode confirmed Vanessa was the one who ordered Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) to take out Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), we finally learn why in the season finale “Straight to Hell”.
The Female Kingpin
Vanessa was left in charge of Wilson’s empire after he took a bullet to the eye at the end of Hawkeye and then went off to try and reconcile with Maya Lopez in Echo. Born Again opened with Vanessa still ruling the roost over the Five Families, with her husband impressed by how she’d kept things together. Although Murdock had already twigged that she was behind the hit on Foggy, the finale explained how it all tied together to the Red Hook. Foggy was celebrating shortly before his death because he realized that he could get ‘Dumb’ Benny Cafaro off from stealing expensive wine from Red Hook after he discovered it was being exploited by the Fisk empire. Vanessa had been using Red Hooks’ free port status to store artwork there, while it soon evolved into the hub of Kingpin’s empire as millions were being laundered there.
After already having Nadeem taken care of, Born Again shows the next step in the evolution of Vanessa into the female Kingpin. Wilson is clearly attracted to his wife’s criminal streak, and speaking to The Wrap, Zurer teased what’s next. Saying that she originally struggled to find her footing after so many years away from the role, Zurer said she soon slipped back into playing Vanessa and explained: “She’s a mirror of Wilson in their fierceness, but she does it, I think … again, it’s crazy, but she does it out of love, which is what makes her character interesting. Even though she reiterates that Vanessa isn't a villain 'per se', she added: "She’s a woman committed in love, deeply in love. They’re kind of halves of each other, in a way." The outlet refers to her as ‘Lady Macbeth’, and with that, we wonder what grim fate inevitably awaits Vanessa.
It could’ve been a very different story, and while it’s now hard to imagine Born Again without Zurer, the original plan was to recast her. This was back when no one was quite sure whether the series would be a proper continuation of the Netflix days, some sort of Multiverse-set adventure, or a reboot that kept some of the OGs like the James Bond movies did with Judi Dench’s M. Amid the creative chaos, House of Cards’ Sandrine Holt was going to take over from Zurer, which is something the original Vanessa wasn’t a fan of.
Breaking her silence on the situation, Zurer told TV Line: "I never really quite understood why they made that decision to not keep not just me but more almost all the actors but Vincent and Charlie. But I can say that when they did change the creative and decided to go back to the original cast, I was very, very happy to join." Confessing that she always felt there was ‘more’ to explore with Vanessa, she praised showrunner Dario Scardapane for shifting her character.
Having already been on the run and exonerated by the FBI, we fear that the only way for Vanessa to go is an eventual exit in a box. Set photos have spoiled that Cox will be slipping into Daredevil’s iconic “Shadowland” suit in season 2, and with that particular arc involving a much darker Man Without Fear killing Bullseye in a quest for vengeance, it’s not looking good for Bethel’s sharp-shooting hitman or the woman who hired him.
While you could argue that Born Again missed a trick by not having Vanessa the art dealer become Muse’s final piece of art to trigger Wilson’s full descent back into Kingpin. It would’ve also been an interesting dynamic if Wilson himself had killed his wife in a fit of rage, possibly if she’d ordered Bullseye to take a hit on Kingpin so she could take over his empire. Neither of these things happened, but at least we get more of Zurer ahead of a potentially equally tragic demise in season 2.