Daredevil Born Again cast for season 2, ICE Parallels premiere
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the season 2 premiere of “Daredevil: Born Again,” now streaming on Disney+.
“Daredevil: Born Again” is back a year after it was revived by Disney+, and it’s still as relevant as ever.
After Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) declares martial law in New York City and bans crime-fighting, he creates the violent Anti-Vigilante Task Force, which locks up citizens without due process. The brutal police in Season 2 has eerie shades of ICE detaining people and using violence against protesters, despite being written almost two years ago.
“Any reflection on reality is coincidental, but Stan Lee said Marvel reflects the world outside our window. Sometimes things just take on a life of their own,” said Brad Winderbaum, executive producer and head of Marvel Television. Variety at the New York premiere Monday night.
In the season 2 premiere, the task force destroys local businesses on Fisk’s orders and cracks down on vigilantes prowling the streets. They are looking for Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and have already locked up Swordsman (Tony Dalton) and many others; Jon Bernthal’s Punisher escaped captivity in Season 1’s post-credits scene.
“As a New Yorker, what we do in the second season would be really scary for a New Yorker,” D’Onofrio said. “There are aspects of what we’re doing now in the second season that would be scary to think about if they were real.”
Journalist BB Urich (Genneya Walton) also publishes pro-Fisk propaganda videos boasting about fighting crime, and a disguised Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) goes undercover to learn secrets from her. And despite Matt Murdock’s absence, Daredevil still puts up a good fight against Kingpin. He opens the premiere with a tense battle aboard a freighter carrying illegal weapons in the East River. Daredevil stops the shipment of Kingpin, which was ordered by Matthew Lillard’s mysterious power player, Mr. Charles. Not much is known about him, but it’s clear he has some powerful friends after he mentioned Julia Louis Dreyfus’ CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in his introduction.
“It’s incredible to be a part of such a project that reflects what’s happening in the world right now,” said Lillard, who makes his Marvel debut with Season 2. “Our hope is that, in some small part of us, you sit at home and realize that we need superheroes. And those are ordinary people. People who stand up for what’s right in the world. Stand up for your neighbors and your friends and do what’s right. Hopefully here’s a piece of that that’s a wake-up call, a rallying cry for ordinary citizens to to do good and fight the oppression that many people feel in America right now.”
The episode ends with a bloody fight scene between Daredevil and Kingpin’s forces. A group of cops break into the apartment of ex-NYPD officer Cherry (Clark Johnson) when they discover his ties to the vigilante group. They tie up Cherry and beat him, but Daredevil swoops in to save him – almost. As Daredevil battles the police, his heightened senses hear Cherry’s faltering heartbeat, and he loses the upper hand in the fight. The officers unmask the hero, but projectiles suddenly bounce through the window and across the room into the enemies’ vital organs. Wilson Bethel’s gunslinger Bullseye has returned and saved Daredevil, but Cherry’s life is still at stake.
If it wasn’t obvious in the first season, “Daredevil: Born Again” isn’t afraid to roll up its sleeves in season 2. It’s easily the most violent series on Disney+, dropping its fair share of F-bombs as well as bone-crushing punches. As it continues to reflect the darkness of the real world, Winderbaum is grateful for Disney’s support in shooting Season 3.
“Disney is a company run by artists. It really is,” he said. “It sounds corny, but I know these people and I really feel like it’s as true as it was in Walt’s day. They really support the creatives. It’s hard to do on this scale, but they never told us we can’t do something.”
