Cry Hallelujah, folks! The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen will be making a return with a brand new Disney+ series. It’s been almost half a decade since Disney’s Marvel made the fateful decision to pull the plug on their gritty, adult-orientated series within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to consolidate all their streaming properties under one platform. Shows like “Jessica Jones”, “Luke Cage”, “The Punisher” and of course “Daredevil” met their untimely end without as much as a proper send-off. This year, however, at Disney’s D23 Expo, fans rejoiced as the Daredevil actor Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays Kingpin, came on stage to announce the upcoming series.
With the two main characters reprising their roles in “Daredevil: Born Again”, and the rest of the original cast presumably coming back as well, we’re left with some very interesting questions: Will the series be picking where the third season of the Netflix series left off? Besides Kingpin making a return, could we see some old enemies making their way to Hell’s Kitchen? Perhaps some new ones as well? Well, let’s take a leap and find out!
1. Bullseye
At the end of the third and final season of Netflix’s “Daredevil”, we see Kingpin violently paralyse an insane Benjamin Poindexter after the assassin realises that it was Fisk himself who took his lady love from him. That was the moment that broke Poindexter’s mind, and he sought to bring down both Kingpin and the Daredevil. At the end of the season though, we see Poindexter being operated on by a mysterious surgeon named Doctor Kenji Oyama, who gives the assassin a whole metal spine made out of Cognium. The series then ends with a close-up of an awakened Poindexter’s eye…with his pupil looking an awful lot like a bull’s eye.
Okay, so it’s pretty obvious that if given the chance the fourth season of the Netflix series would have followed Poindexter becoming the MCU’s version of Bullseye. This is huge by the way! Next to Kingpin, Bullseye is easily Daredevil’s greatest nemesis. A raging, sadistic psychopath who stops at nothing to ruin his life. In the comics, the man has killed both Elektra and Karen Page, two of Daredevil’s lovers. We know actor Charlie Cox described the upcoming series as “a whole new thing” but it would be a cardinal sin for Disney not to have him not appear in “Daredevil: Born Again”! We’re still keeping our eye out for whether actor Wilson Bethel might join the cast.
2. The Tracksuit Mafia
One of the pawns that Kingpin used in his game to take down Hawkeye, or rather the deadly assassin Ronin, was the crime syndicate known as the Tracksuit Mafia. The organisation has ties all over the city of New York. At the end of the first season of “Hawkeye”, most of its leadership has been seemingly taken out or has defected, leaving only one man left to take charge: the Kingpin. It makes perfect sense that the remaining members of the Tracksuit Mafia would rally behind the criminal seeing that he’s still very much alive in spite of Maya Lopez’s attempt on his life.
If Kingpin is going to face off against the likes of Daredevil and his allies, he’s going to need muscle and the Tracksuit Mafia has plenty to spare. We certainly know some version of the crime syndicate still exists seeing that one of its members, with the handle @TrkSuit22, replies to Jennifer Walter’s live stream in an episode of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law”. Let’s face it, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of them, bro!
3. Nuke
Based on the title of the series, it seems that the show will be somewhat inspired by the plot of Frank Miller’s iconic story arc entitled “Born Again”. The plot of his comic run sees Kingpin acquiring the aid of super-soldier Francis “Frank” Simpson, also known as Nuke. Nuke was a Vietnam veteran before joining an experimental program that turned him into a literal killing machine. This vicious killer’s body has been augmented with artificial skin and cybernetic enhancements. He also uses combat-enhancing drugs to grant him an edge in combat. The drugs along with his war trauma have made Nuke a highly dangerous and unstable man. Just the kind of psychopath Fisk needs to take out his mortal enemy.
Technically, a version of Nuke has appeared in the MCU in the form of a United States Army veteran named William “Will” Simpson” who appears in Netflix’s “Jessica Jones” series. Interestingly enough, Will also uses combat-enhancing drugs to grant temporary super-abilities. Nuke does play a major role in the “Born Again” comics. Therefore, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to believe that Nuke would make an appearance in the Disney+ series. Either in the form of Wil Traval’s Will Simpson or as a whole other version entirely.
4. The Punisher
Few characters in the MCU would we ever call scary. When it comes to Frank Castle, more commonly whispered in fear as the Punisher, he is absolutely one to look out for. We know that at the end of the second season of Netflix’s “Daredevil”, the two of them had made up and even become allies. That being said, with Fisk now back in the picture, Castle could prove to be a thorn in Matt Murdock’s side again. The man will stop at nothing to bring the pain to evildoers everywhere and will cross any line to do so. Something that Murdock is definitely not a fan of.
Recently, there’s been rumours that Krysten Ritter’s appearance in “Daredevil: Born Again” would be replaced with Jon Bernthal’s Punisher. If the grim reaper of the criminal underworld is making a comeback in the MCU, there’s bound to be some friction between Punisher and Daredevil. If he does appear, he probably won’t try to murder our horned hero, but he certainly isn’t going to play nice either.
5. The Hand
Rounding this list off is none other than the sinister, supernatural ninja clan known as the Hand. A group of ancient immortals who seek to control New York from the shadows. A demonic organisation in which Murdock has fought relentlessly to keep his city safe. The last we saw them, their leaders were buried alive under a collapsed building, along with the dragon bones that gave them their immortality. Then again…the members of the Hand are known to cheat death. With all this ninja action happening in the “Hawkeye” series, could we possibly see the return of the Hand in the MCU?
Well, Fisk did work rather closely with the Hand after the Battle of New York. He even helped them in their plan to bring about an apocalypse with the use of the Black Sky. With Fisk running low on allies, with only the Tracksuit Mafia on his side, he could very well call upon an alliance with the Hand. One that would serve a common goal: to kill the Daredevil.
