Marvel is getting its Netflix supergroup back together, this time in the MCU
Six episodes into Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again and six years after the conclusion of the Netflix series Jessica Jones, Jessica herself has finally joined the MCU.
Even though we already knew that Krysten Ritter would be reprising her role as the superhuman private investigator after Marvel announced her return last year, this is a momentous occasion—and one that seemed highly doubtful after Jessica Jones was canceled in 2019 alongside the rest of the TV shows that constituted the Defenders Saga. Her arrival gives Born Again an extra burst of energy as it picks up momentum in the second half of the season. And it also brings this street-level corner of the MCU one step closer to its inevitable Defenders reunion.
In Episode 6, “Requiem,” Jessica’s triumphant return begins with an important life update: She now has a daughter. Before we even see a glimpse of Jessica’s face, Born Again focuses on young Danielle, who’s playing at the small family’s suburban home when gun-toting lackeys of CIA operative Mr. Charles pay Jessica a visit. As Jones dispatches the intruders in the background (while still wearing her sweats, no less), Danielle picks up an active grenade that’s been tossed through an open window. Jessica makes quick work of the hapless goons as the camera follows Danielle, who walks through the house, waving around the ticking explosive like a magic wand. Jessica arrives—accompanied by a musical allusion to the Jessica Jones theme—just in time to disarm the grenade, and to give her daughter a quick lesson on not playing around with lethal weapons.
The scene is a playful reintroduction that serves as an appetizer to the episode’s main course: a team-up between Daredevil and Jessica Jones. The duo reunites outside of the warehouse where the anti-vigilante task force (AVTF) has just moved the weapon shipments that Mayor Fisk owed to Mr. Charles. But before they get to work—or “cause a little trouble,” as Jessica puts it—they do a little catching up to deliver some helpful exposition.
Jessica provides two interesting updates to Matt that clue us in on the latest developments in her new life in the MCU—and luckily, neither of them has anything to do with where she was during the Blip The first pertains to the trouble she’s been having with her superhuman strength, which we get an example of in the forthcoming skirmish. “After Danielle, it just drops out sometimes and then comes back,” Jessica says. “I don’t think there’s an owner’s manual for this shit, you know?
More on ‘Daredevil: Born Again’
More on ‘Daredevil: Born Again’
The second update is a thinly veiled allusion to the whereabouts of Luke Cage—her love interest in Jessica Jones, and presumably Danielle’s father, if the characters’ comics history is any guide. As Jessica tells Matt about Mr. Charles and his gun-running affairs with the city’s shady mayor, she also mentions a previous encounter that she had with the government operative: “A while ago, this guy called. Obviously agency, obviously sketchy as hell. He was interested in people like us. I told him to fuck off. Not everyone I know did.”
Based on this vague description alone, there’s no telling where Luke actually is—or what Mr. Charles and his boss, CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, may be using the former Defender for. But both bits of information offer some intrigue around Jones as Born Again reorients her in a new cinematic universe.
The warehouse raid that follows is a dynamic, nostalgia-fueled action sequence that finds Daredevil and Jessica Jones fighting alongside each other for the first time since 2017’s The Defenders crossover miniseries. It’s far from the greatest Daredevil set piece that either the original series or its Disney+ revival has delivered; unlike some of the classic one-shot fight scenes of the Netflix series, this sequence has so many cuts in the editing that disrupt the natural flow of the action, and it doesn’t even last for 90 seconds. Yet it’s still special to see these two beloved superheroes from Marvel’s Netflix era on-screen together again, fighting side by side in a fun demonstration of their teamwork and respective skill sets.
Jessica’s role in “Requiem” ends after she and Daredevil destroy the warehouse, but given how much Marvel has teased her reemergence, it’s safe to say she’ll be back for more in the final two episodes of the season. The rest of the installment is packed with drama as Fisk’s war against vigilantes reaches its boiling point. Karen almost kills Bullseye, and the episode ends with her getting captured by the AVTF. Daniel finally confronts BB Urich for leaking information from the mayor’s office. The AVTF turns a peaceful protest into a violent confrontation with the civilians it’s supposed to protect, and Kingpin fights Daredevil as the mayor’s stranglehold over the city loosens in the wake of Vanessa’s death.
Jones’s arrival, in the midst of all these moving parts, helps set up not only the end of the season but also the future of the series. And if you’ve been following any Marvel-related news in the past week (aside from the bleak updates surrounding the Disney layoffs, which reportedly included almost the entire visual development team at Marvel Studios), you may have already learned a lot more about that future than Kevin Feige wanted.
While Born Again dances around any direct mention of Luke’s name, the actor who plays the man with unbreakable skin—Mike Colter—has been just a little less discreet about his forthcoming return. (Warning: If you have no idea what I’m referring to and don’t want anything about upcoming episodes of Born Again spoiled, you may want to stop reading here.)
On April 13, Colter posted a set photo (which he’s since deleted) that featured him alongside Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page and Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, the latter of whom was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. Of course, we’re living in an internet age when leakers are releasing entire movies months before they premiere, and other set photos had already spoiled juicy plot points in Born Again (see below), so this might not seem like such a big deal. But Colter’s post doesn’t just confirm his return; it also reveals that Daredevil will end up behind bars, either at the end of Season 2 or at some point in Season 3.
That outcome has also raised further speculation about a potential Daredevil appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, whose first trailer featured Spider-Man in a prison, battling the Hand. It’s possible that Spidey is there for other reasons, but given that he’s fighting the same ancient criminal organization that Murdock faced in Netflix’s Daredevil, it’s not much of a stretch to think that Spider-Man could be attempting to spring his lawyer out of lockup.
Daredevil’s prison time aside, Colter’s Cage is set to join Jessica Jones—and Danielle—in Born Again and the MCU soon enough. Out of the four members of the Defenders, that leaves only one unaccounted for: Daniel Rand (Finn Jones), better known as the culturally appropriating, kung fu–fighting Iron Fist. Although Born Again has yet to reference Rand in the series itself, set photos and another post from Colter have all but confirmed Finn as part of the forthcoming reunion in Season 3. Iron Fist was probably the worst of Marvel’s Netflix series, yet even Jones’s Rand appears to be getting a second chance in the MCU. Here’s hoping that Jessica Henwick will be reprising her role as Colleen Wing, too.
From 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home to 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine to the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, Marvel has been going all in on nostalgia to propel it back to the heights the studio reached during the Infinity Saga. Born Again and its slow march toward a Defenders reunion fit the pattern. Ritter’s Jones is a welcome addition to Season 2 in this week’s episode, but how she’s integrated into these final two installments may indicate just how natural—and necessary—this Defenders revival in the MCU will be. It can be easy to forget just how inconsistent those Netflix series were, with the Defenders crossover amounting to the biggest disappointment of them all. A reunion in Born Again might end up being a distraction from the story that the series has been building around Daredevil.
But there’s no need for fans of the Defenders Saga, and Jessica Jones in particular, to get too far ahead of themselves. Because the sardonic private investigator is finally back, and she’s arrived just as Born Again is ramping up to its season finale.
Daniel Chin
Daniel writes about TV, film, and scattered topics in sports that usually involve the New York Knicks. He often covers the never-ending cycle of superhero content and other areas of nerd culture and fandom. He is based in Brooklyn.