The season 2 premiere of Marvel Television's Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+, and "The Northern Star" features a nod to a certain MCU character that you may have missed unless you were listening closely.
Shortly after Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) is made aware that the Man Without Fear has foiled his latest scheme (more here), we are introduced to the mysterious "Mr. Charles" (Matthew Lillard).
We don't learn much about this shadowy figure, but we do know who he's working for.
Spoilers ahead!
Charles barges into Fisk's office while he is taking a meeting with the Attorney General, who has some concerns about the Mayor's abuse of power. When Sheila Rivera asks the rather obnoxious stranger to explain himself, he tells her he's "from Langley," and his CIA connections are confirmed when the Attorney General immediately backs down and shows his support for Fisk after taking a call from "Miss Fontaine."
Does this mean Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) will actually put in an appearance during season 2 or beyond?
Showrunner Dario Scardapane and executive producer Sana Amanat clearly want Louis-Dreyfus on the show, but fans probably shouldn't get their hopes up.
“We wanted to put Mr. Charles in that world. We wanted to kind of connect those two,” Scardapane explained to The Wrap. “Her showing up in our world would be the best, but a lot of the times, we’re siloed in this, you know, pretty rich world of characters and where those crossovers are.”
“There’s no need for that,” Amanat added. “I feel like these stories are so rich on their own that we are able to tell the stories we need to, especially with Daredevil, because there’s so many different kinds of characters. But, we create space.”
“I mean, obviously Season 2 will be coming out before Spider-Man comes out,” she continued. “And, you know, we’re about to go into Season 3. I don’t think we’re necessarily teeing anything up, but they are all kind of in the same space. I think the little connection with Mr. Charles and the MCU is super fun, that is a wink to the audience that, yeah, who knows?”
Charles - and by extension, Val - clearly have a vested interest in Fisk's criminal operation, but if there are any plans in place for De Fontaine and the Kingpin to meet, nobody has told Vincent D'Onofrio.
“It’s never been discussed, not with me, any connection to her,” said the actor. “There is this kind of, it’s floating out there, kind of a thing. But there’s been no real discussion about that relationship, or how she has to do with our little world that we have on our show, or anything like that.”
What did you make of the Val mention? Drop us a comment down below, and check out a newly-released clip from the premiere.
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."