Ranking Daredevil’s Netflix Villains Before Born Again Season 2 Release

Everyone is excited for Daredevil: Born Again to premiere its second season on March 24th, delivering eight episodes on Disney+ that promise to be the MCU’s most intense street-level conflict yet. 

It’s crucial to understand that Born Again isn’t starting from scratch. The series begins several years after the events of Netflix’s Daredevil, which ended in 2018 with blind lawyer Matt Murdock having stopped his activities as the masked vigilante before being pulled back into the fight when former crime boss Wilson Fisk is elected mayor of New York City. 

Season 2 sees Mayor Wilson Fisk crushing New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil, while beneath the horned mask, Matt tries to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and get his life back. 

The last couple of years have been challenging for Marvel. Once the immediate post‑Endgame euphoria faded in 2021, the studio struggled to recapture the cultural stranglehold it had enjoyed for more than a decade. The universe began to feel diluted and stretched thin across too many Disney+ shows and Phase Four projects that never quite connected with audiences.

There are signs of a turnaround. With Avengers: Doomsday arriving at the end of 2026, Marvel is slowly clawing its way back to relevance. Marvel Rivals has become a genuine gaming phenomenon. Merchandise continues to sell at an astonishing pace.

You can feel that renewed appetite across pop culture too, right down to fans jumping into themed slot games and online casinos that accept Venmo as part of the broader Marvel nostalgia wave. 

Season 1 gave Disney+ a much‑needed lift in 2025 and reminded everyone that Marvel still knows how to tell a darker, character-focused story. 

By the end of the finale episode, Kingpin declared martial law on New York, with his Anti-Vigilante Task Force using military force on anyone suspected of being a criminal, whether masked law enforcers or simple crooks. After causing a blackout and unleashing the VTF on the streets, Fisk convinced the city his corrupt police force had saved them, then gruesomely murdered Police Commissioner Gallo by crushing his head in front of his loyal henchmen.

Over the years, Matt has assembled one of the most impressive rogues’ galleries in Marvel history. He’s fought in The Defenders, tangled with Spider-Man’s world, and across the comics has faced villains who are grittier, bloodier, and more psychologically complex than most superhero fare.

As Born Again Season 2 approaches, let’s examine the antagonists who have defined Matt Murdock’s war for Hell’s Kitchen.

Kingpin

Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk stands as one of the greatest villain performances in any superhero property, period. He’s the dark mirror Matt can’t stop staring into, a man who genuinely believes he’s saving Hell’s Kitchen through violence and control. 

Where Matt fights from the shadows with his fists, Fisk wields institutional power, political influence, and a terrifying mix of vulnerability, insecurity, and brutality that makes every scene he occupies feel dangerous.

Every season of both the Netflix series and Born Again revolves around Fisk’s gravitational pull, even when he’s off-screen. He’s a cultural force, a political juggernaut, and a psychological chokehold on Matt’s entire existence.

You understand why he does what he does, even as you’re horrified by the methods. It will be interesting to see where Dario Scardapane takes Kingpin next. 

The Punisher

Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle isn’t a villain in the traditional sense, but in Season 2 of the Netflix series, he functioned as Matt’s most compelling antagonist because he forced Matt to confront the limits of his own moral code.

 Their rooftop debate remains one of the best philosophical clashes in any superhero show, two men with the same mission but violently different methodologies.

What makes Castle brilliant as an antagonist is that he’s right just enough to be dangerous. His arguments have weight. His results are undeniable. And watching Matt try to prove that his way is better, that mercy and restraint still matter, becomes the emotional core of their conflict. Especially after Foggy’s death. 

Bullseye

Season 3 of the Netflix series introduced Wilson Bethel’s Benjamin Poindexter, reimagined as a psychologically unstable FBI agent manipulated by Fisk into becoming Bullseye. 

He’s the only villain who can match and sometimes exceed Matt’s combat precision, turning Daredevil’s own fighting style against him in ways that are genuinely terrifying to watch.

Those fights? The office bloodbath and church bell tower showdown are MCU violence done properly. Daredevil faces an opponent who might actually be better than him. 

His arc in Born Again Season 1 took a twisted turn when Vanessa Fisk hired him to eliminate threats to Wilson’s mayoral campaign. 

The breakout and subsequent assassination attempt on Vanessa herself (which Matt heroically interrupted) revealed just how unstable and unpredictable Bullseye had become. 

Season 2 will likely see him fully unleashed, no longer under anyone’s control and more lethal than ever.

The Hand 

The Hand are first referenced in Daredevil Season 1, introduced through whispers about a shadowy, ancient order operating behind the scenes in Hell’s Kitchen. Their presence becomes clearer once Stick arrives and warns Matt about a looming war tied to a mysterious weapon called “Black Sky.” 

They took on an entirely different scale in The Defenders. Instead of shadowy assassins haunting Hell’s Kitchen, they emerged as a fully fledged criminal empire with global reach and centuries‑old ambitions. Their resurrection rituals and obsession with immortality forced Matt into a fight he couldn’t win by himself. 

For the first time, Daredevil stood shoulder‑to‑shoulder with Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Danny Rand, each bringing their own fractured worldview into the war. Matt became the reluctant centre of the team, the one hero who understood just how dangerous The Hand truly was. Their battle beneath Midland Circle was iconic, and the best part of what was an underwhelming spin-off.

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Daredevil lives or dies by his villains. With Season 2 almost here, it isn’t about if Fisk or Daredevil win. It’s what victory leaves both looking like.