The season 2 finale of Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming on Disney+, and even though the end of the episode was strongly hinted at by a since-deleted set photo (thanks, Mike Colter), "The Southern Cross" concluded with a surprising development that left Matt Murdock behind bars.
Realizing that the only way to oust Wilson Fisk as Mayor and expose his criminal dealings is to sacrifice his own freedom, Murdock decides to reveal his vigilante identity of Daredevil to the world, potentially setting up a "The Devil in Cell Block D"-inspired storyline for season 3.
“It was like, Okay, this is a big challenge. It’s shocking. I think at that point I thought maybe that would be the final season,” Cox tells The Wrap. “So I was a little shocked to learn quite soon after that we were going to do another one.“
Cox was supportive of the plot point, but he did have one caveat: “There was a silence, and I think I said, Okay, it’s a genie I don’t think we can put back in the box. Or at least, I don’t want to put it back in the box."
In the comics, the children of the Purple Man use their powers to convince everyone that the Man Without Fear and Matt Murdock are two different people, but there won't be a similar undoing of these events in Born Again.
“That was kind of fun, and cool, and interesting,” Cox adds. “Because obviously, Kilgrave does exist in our universe, wonderfully played by David Tennant. I really would like to see him kind of make a return of some sort, but I think he’s a very, very busy man.”
Cox is adamant that he will not appear in Avengers: Doomsday, but he is definitely interested in mixing it up with other heroes in the wider MCU.
“It’d be so cool to kind of have some kind of crossover with all of the Avengers, with Spider-Man as Daredevil, rather than as Matt Murdock, all of that kind of stuff. I will say that I did have a particularly good time with Tatiana [Maslany in ‘She-Hulk’]. I happen to think she’s one of the most talented actors of my generation, and what she did with that character, I thought was tremendous, because the tone of that is really difficult.”
With Murdock now incarcerated, there's a lot of speculation that Daredevil will make an appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, since the trailer shows Spidey doing battle with The Hand in a prison. Fans are convinced that the shot of the wall-crawler leaping into action (see above) has been edited to remove the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.
“I mean, I went on Jimmy Kimmel last week, the second half of the interview is him trying to get out of me whether I’m Spider-Man,” Cox said. “Those questions very quickly died away at Netflix, because I think people understood, from a business perspective, it was a very difficult thing to marry.”
“But now that we are — having made these kind of mini-splashes with me in [‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’], Vincent in ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Echo,’ it’s on the table, it’s on the cards. It’s possible, it’s available, and Jon [Bernthal] now going into [‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’] as well.”
Various online scoopers have reported that Cox is not expected to show up in Brand New Day, but following the events of the Born Again finale, we'd say it's looking a lot more likely.
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."