Marvel Abandoned Multiverse Twist To Keep ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Connected To Netflix Storyline

When Daredevil: Born Again was first being developed, Marvel had a very different idea for the show. According to Charlie Cox, the original version of the Disney+ series included a major multiverse twist. But that plan didn’t make it to the final cut.

Speaking on Deadline’s Crew Call podcast, Cox revealed that the earlier version of the show was going to use “variants” of familiar characters like Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, and Karen Page.

This would have made the new show take place in a different reality from the one seen in the original Netflix Daredevil series. The multiverse approach would have placed the Netflix story in an alternate universe rather than keeping it part of the main Marvel timeline.

Cox explained what Marvel was thinking at the time. “One of the things the original team wanted to do was they wanted to keep Vincent [D’Onofrio] and I. They wanted to keep us, [but] they didn’t want to alienate the audience who hadn’t watched the [Netflix] show. They wanted it to kind of be a reset.”

He went on to say that while they didn’t officially call them “variants,” the characters were basically meant to be different versions. “So there was a conversation about it being almost like a variant. You know, in the Loki show, we talk about these variants. It was almost like it was a variant – and we never said that – but it was almost like a variant. So it was another version of these characters existing in this world.”

But Cox said the idea ended up being too confusing. Viewers were already familiar with the Netflix version of Daredevil and didn’t see this new version as a separate one. Instead of feeling like a multiverse story, it just felt off.

“That’s a valid choice, it’s a fun idea. The problem became that whenever I said something that was in contrast to what we’d shot in the past, people thought I was lying. They didn’t think I was a variant, they thought I was being disingenuous. It was a nice idea, it just didn’t pan out.”

In late 2023, Marvel reworked the show. They brought in a new showrunner, Dario Scardapane, and restructured the series. They decided to make the original Daredevil show fully canon and continued the story with a time jump instead of rebooting it.

In this new version, Matt Murdock has retired as Daredevil after Wilson Fisk becomes mayor of New York City and starts a harsh crackdown on vigilantes. Instead of fighting crime in the streets, Matt goes back to the courtroom. This storyline plays out over the first nine episodes of Born Again Season 1.

Season 2 is now filming in New York and is planned for release in 2026. The upcoming episodes will continue Matt’s journey and expand on this new chapter, with no multiverse tricks this time.

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