Ever since Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio made their Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk returns in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye, fans have been left questioning the status of the Marvel TV shows falling under the Netflix banner of The Defenders.
Given Charlie Cox’s subsequent guest appearance in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and character recastings for Daredevil: Born Again (with Sandrine Holt reportedly portraying Vanessa Fisk, originally played by Ayelet Zurer in Netflix’s Daredevil), it had been assumed that these MCU versions of Daredevil and Wilson Fisk must be Earth-616 variants, with the past shows existing elsewhere in the Marvel multiverse.
Well, in the wake of the complete creative reboot of Daredevil: Born Again, it seems those plans have changed; fans will have noticed Netflix’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher and The Defenders taking their place among the ‘Sacred MCU’ section of Disney+, and now The Kingpin himself Vincent D’Onofrio has confirmed their canonization during a promotion interview for Marvel’s newest series Echo.
“During our restart of all the creative on Daredevil: Born Again, all the creatives got together and said, ‘Look, this is how we’ve got to do it now,’” said D’Onofrio regarding the decision to have Born Again serve as a follow-up to the Netflix shows. “So we are for sure only speaking about it in terms of being directly connected to the original Daredevil, and that’s a great thing. It brings in a lot of cool stories and all the collateral story that happened in those original three seasons.”
D’Onofrio also went on to discuss the addition of the now-veteran Marvel directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Moon Knight, Loki) to Born Again’s creative team, stating: “I’m a huge fan of those guys, and I talk to them all the time now. When I heard that [they were joining Born Again], I was like, ‘OK, not only are we switching things up, but the bosses are doing the right thing for us.’ They’ve given us their hottest talent, and that’s pretty cool. So the first thing I did was thank them. I thanked Kevin Feige for doing that and sticking with Charlie [Cox] and I. It’s a pretty amazing thing.”
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We’re yet to get specifics on Marvel’s new plans for Daredevil: Born Again, but it was reported last week that Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll are both in talks to reprise their roles as Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, where they’d reunite with Cox, D’Onofrio and Jon Bernthal, who is also back as Frank Castle/The Punisher. D’Onofrio meanwhile can currently be seen back as Wilson Fisk in Echo, which is streaming now on Disney+.
The origin story of Echo revisits Maya Lopez, whose ruthless behavior in New York City catches up with her in her hometown. She must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward.
Echo sees Alaqua Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Zahn McClarnon reprising their roles from Hawkeye with Charlie Cox also featuring alongside Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Cody Lightning, and Graham Greene.
