Some recent photos from the set of Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 revealed that Élodie Yung will reprise her role as Elektra from the Netflix Marvel shows, and we're now hearing that the season will adapt a major storyline from the comics involving the highly skilled assassin and Bullseye (Wilson Bethel).
Possible spoilers ahead.
As any Daredevil comic fan will be aware, Bullseye kills Elektra with one of her own Sai in the pages of 1982's Daredevil #181 after a vicious battle.
Here's what Alex Perez had to say in the latest Cosmic Circus Q&A.
"After the ending of the Defenders, you have to really wonder what [Elektra] has been up to. The same goes for Luke and for Danny. And with the recent appearance of the Hand in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, one’s got to wonder if she’s associated with them this time around. But as to what you can expect from her. There is lots of tension between her and Matt, especially when they reunite. But there’s one scene between her and Wilson Bethel’s Bullseye that will really have viewers on the edge of their seats. And anyone who’s read the comics knows what I’m alluding to."
How wise a choice it would be to bring another beloved character back only to kill them off in the same season is debatable, but unlike Foggy Nelson, there is a good chance Elektra will return at some point.
As for Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, will we really see a redemption arc for this ruthless killer play out in Season 3, or is he completely delusional?
Showrunner Dario Scardapane hinted at what fans can expect from the character's arc in a recent interview.
"I don’t think where he ends up at the end of the season could in any way, shape, or form be called redemption. I don’t think that [happens] in the comics, in our lore – in our world. When Bullseye says I’m one of the good guys, you can never take that seriously, and that only exists in his mind. I don’t know if Bullseye can be redeemed for us in the normal world. Out there, there’s no redeeming him."
As for those fans holding out hope that Foggy Nelson will return - which does happen in the comics - it sounds like Matt Murdock's bestie is well and truly "gone-gone."
"There’s always room for surprises, and I don’t want to get hopes up, nor do I want to give anything away. I think Charlie’s already addressed this. There are versions in the books where Foggyʼs death was faked. There are different runs that have done different things, but in our version of Daredevil: Born Again, in order to kind of kick the story off in a way that we didn’t take lightly, that loss colors everything that Matt does in every episode from here on out. So, to make that, 'Oh, it was all a dream,' or 'Oh, it was fake,' really lessens the impact on Matt, and Karen, and their little nuclear family.
This is Marvel, man. You have characters playing other characters 10 years later. Anything can happen, but in our story, the loss of Foggy is very real and has a very real impact on Matt for the entirety of the story. I think you see that in episode 5 where this layer cake that we made of Matt contemplating forgiving the man who killed Foggy, and remembering Foggy’s kind of commitment to mercy, that stuff only really works if Foggy’s gone-gone."
Scardapane was asked if he could drop any hints about the next villain the Man Without Fear will encounter.
"You know, there are people who are like, 'oh God, Matt and Fisk,' but I actually feel that Matt and Fisk are getting closer and closer together as time goes by, in terms of, if you look at where they both end up at the end of season two, it’s easy to kind of start thinking about. Their battles are more revealing of who they are, and I think that they’re heading towards that set of revelations getting sorely tested, not exactly by each other."
A possible hint that Daredevil and the Kingpin will put their differences aside to battle a common enemy? This does happen in Ed Brubaker's The Devil in Cell Block-D storyline, which could mean season 3 will see a new character take up the mantle of Daredevil.
Finally, Scardapane responded to the rumors that both Elektra (who has obviously now been confirmed) and Colleen Wing could return.
"The best way I could put this without giving too much away is that what we do when we’re in the writer’s room is we go and look at some of the iconic comic book runs. We look at a lot of the things that seem to make sense in the story that we’re moving forward, and then when the time comes to bring a character in or to add a storyline, we have our wish list. Everybody you have mentioned so far is on that wish list. There’s the stuff that I would love to do, there’s the stuff that they’re doing in the larger MCU and sometimes those align and sometimes they don’t.
The world that we’re doing with this show is very Frank Miller-esque, for lack of a better word. Chip [Zdarsky] and [Brian Michael] Bendis, those artists and writers, they have a very kind of particular tone and a particular sweet spot, and a lot of the characters that you’ve mentioned work in that sweet spot."
Across eight gripping episodes, survival, resistance and redemption collide as the battle for the soul of New York begins," reads the season 2 synopsis. "In Season 2, Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil. But beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild."