DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN May Have Lost Another Key Star/Character Following Creative Overhaul

Over the weekend, we learned that Daredevil: Born Again has enlisted Ayelet Zurer to reprise her role as Vanessa Fisk, but it now looks like Sandrine Holt is the only one who has left the overhauled show.

By JoshWilding - Apr 08, 2024 09:04 AM EST

Filed Under: Daredevil

Daredevil: Born Again underwent a major creative overhaul last year, with Marvel Studios replacing the show's writers and directors to essentially start from scratch.

It appears the idea was for the series to be a legal drama, with Matt Murdock hanging his suit up after the death of Foggy Nelson. That's not really the Daredevil follow-up fans have been so desperate for, so starting over and bringing back Foggy, Karen Nelson, and Bullseye, for example, has been deemed a step in the right direction.

Initially, it looked like Marvel Studios planned to only very loosely reference the Netflix series, with the main connection being a few returning cast members. Now, the first 9 episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are likely to be a direct continuation.

That was confirmed by a recent set photo revealing that Ayelet Zurer will reprise her role as Vanessa Fisk, a pretty significant turnaround seeing as Sandrine Holt (Better Call Saul) was previously cast as the MCU's new Mrs. Fisk!

Holt has since taken down the casting announcement from her Instagram account, but so has Nikki M. James. The Les Misérables star was cast as Kirsten McDuffie and spotted on set alongside Charlie Cox before the overhaul (back when it looked like the plan was for Matt to join the District Attorney's office).

This suggests Kirsten has been dropped from Daredevil: Born Again, though it's not outside the realm of possibility the role has been recast. Scheduling issues could explain James' departure, especially when there are 9 more episodes which still need to be shot by Marvel Studios.

Stay tuned for updates as we have them.

Sandrine Holt (previously cast as Vanessa Fisk) and Nikki M. James (rumoured as Kirsten McDuffie) have both deleted their Instagram posts announcing their casting in 'DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN'.

Speculation is that they were both written out of the show. pic.twitter.com/UIx6mPXabk
— Daredevil Updates (@DDevilUpdates) April 8, 2024

The cast of Daredevil: Born Again includes Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, Wilson Bethel as Bullseye, and ~~Sandrine Holt~~ Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk.

Michael Gandolfini, Margarita Levieva, ~~Nikki M. James~~, Michael Gaston, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Hunter Doohan have all been cast in undisclosed roles, though we believe the latter is playing Muse.

Daredevil: Born Again will likely premiere on Disney+ in 2025/2026.

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN Set Photos See Vincent D'Onofrio's Mayor Fisk Reunite With A Familiar Face

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DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN Set Photo Reveals That Ayelet Zurer Will Return As Vanessa Fisk After All

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40 Comments

Polaris - 4/8/2024, 9:23 AM

I see why they would drop her, since Matt is working with Foggy and Karen.

TheVisionary25 - 4/8/2024, 9:27 AM

@Polaris - yeah

If the original plan was for Matt to have hung up his suit due to the death of either Foggy or Karen (perhaps both) and have joined the DA’s office then it makes sense to have her then but if that’s not the case anymore then I get removing her

Still have a bad feeling Foggy might die though.

Polaris - 4/8/2024, 9:30 AM

@TheVisionary25 - Same, but I hope we're wrong

TheVisionary25 - 4/8/2024, 9:32 AM

@Polaris - hope so too

I mean he it has kinda sorta happened before in the comics but he’s been brought back which I’ll doubt they’ll do.

Polaris - 4/8/2024, 9:36 AM

@TheVisionary25 - Yeah, it wouldn't be like Elektra for example, who they always had the intention to bring back, but also after Secret Wars who knows

Apophis71 - 4/8/2024, 10:06 AM

@Polaris - I mean intent or otherwise if they keep it as shot and taken away in an Ambulance for instance then from there to a funeral service then can retain a semi-source accurate time when he was attacked and declared dead (but later revealed he went into witness protection).

Wouldn't mean they plan for him to return but keeps options open if we don't see him actualy die but show his grave without it having to be a due to the universe reboot retcon if they decide they want him back again later.

That is assuming they go there at all and being shot does stay in the series which it appears from BTS stuff and/or he isn't just seriously injured from that not dead. More curious is they finaly go there and kill Page as, far as I'm aware, that did stick in the comics and would tie in more with Punisher being back as having a narrative reason for inclusion. That and they were already kinda pushing the envelope already in finding interesting things for her to do (not to say there isn't good ideas they COULD come up with for her).

Polaris - 4/8/2024, 3:29 PM

@Apophis71 - That's true. It's better if they keep their options open instead of retconning things later.
I don't know why but I'm confident they won't kill Karen.

Apophis71 - 4/8/2024, 4:12 PM

@Polaris - Probably a suspicion that with a four person group of DD, Foggy, Punisher and Karen of the carry over good guys they wouldn't kill the only female, lol. However isn't like they can't bring in more females to prevent a total sausage fest, are supposed to be getting a female white tiger introduced along with supposedly getting a female relative of Ben Ulrich brought in too...

...but having a gut instinct that Page is safer than the others is not unreasonable by any means for the same reason many Thought Mighty Thor wouldn't die even tho that was source accurate for Jane Foster.

I liked Karen Page on Netflix however, even if they did kinda struggle a tad finding her things to do rather than slip into the background so hope she doesn't die, same with Foggy.

Matchesz - 4/8/2024, 9:26 AM

Drew Goddard made what a billion dollar company is still struggling to do look effortless. Sucks when ur not part of the disney clique

SATW42 - 4/8/2024, 10:01 AM

@Matchesz - Did someone dressed as Mickey Mouse steal your girlfriend once or something? You have such a ridiculous raging hard on against just the idea of a company. It's weird.

Like it's to the point where I have to ask you in all honesty, do you believe in lizard people and think "they" caused the earthquake in New Jersey on Friday because the epicenter was under trumps golf course and they were trying to show him "their" power?

Because that's what you're legitmately started to sound like

Matchesz - 4/8/2024, 10:43 AM

@SATW42 - lol i dont believe in Lizard people but I do believe in real life evil corporations, that friendly facade didnt work with nickelodeon, it almost did

SATW42 - 4/8/2024, 11:36 AM

@Matchesz - I hate to break it to you, but all multi-billion dollar corporations are evil, so the singling out of Disney makes me think you got lost in tomorrow land or something and never got over it.

Matchesz - 4/8/2024, 1:45 PM

@SATW42 - disney is the worst one, they got everyones children hooked and they know they’re in the position to brainwash smooth brains and they’re already showing signs of taking advantage of a whole half the populations tolerance. They’re divisive. they act like they’re for the people, “racist is bad,” “women empowerment” but its all a ploy, just look at the way they go about things… for example the original cassie actress(the one who had chemistry with Rudd) is 16 now and can play stature if they wanted her to but instead they casted that Newton chick cause shes more older/experienced and popular. It’s a shady move in and of itself, thats like WB recasting the harry potter kids so they can push the story along and make more money

SATW42 - 4/8/2024, 1:58 PM

@Matchesz - You're talking about the ORIGINAL Cassie? The little girl? Cause theres now been 3 Cassies. She had to be aged up because of a 5 year time jump. Do you know how much kids age at that time? The actress was only 11 then. She was 10 in ant-man and the wasp. If Scott came back to an 11 year old girl instead of a 16 year old girl it would've made absolutely no sense. It would've seemed like he hadn't left.

This is why LOST had to punt on Walt, except opposite. He aged too fast and it was going to be distracting. In Ant-Mans case they jumped 5 years in a 6 month span.

dagenspear - 4/8/2024, 3:39 PM

@SATW42 - I didn't realize someone needed a reason nowadays to dislike a faceless, multibilliondollar corporation that homogenizes story and characters, to force them to fit for their brand with varying degrees of weak lackluster results.

What did Disney ever do for you to get you to defend them or think they don't have reason to be disliked in regards to their products? I wouldn't put money on them having done anything anymore special to earn that defense than the reason this person has for disliking them.

dagenspear - 4/8/2024, 3:40 PM

@SATW42 - And yet you're defending one.

SATW42 - 4/8/2024, 4:21 PM

@dagenspear - I don't take issue with anyone disliking something. What I take issue with is he says something about not liking Disney on ALMOST every single post, sometimes multiple times a day.

There's expressing an opinion, and then there's obsession, and if you look at my orignal post again, it's me pointing out he has a raging hard on for Disney, so clearly there's context to me commenting on that you're either unaware of, or ignoring.

dagenspear - 4/8/2024, 6:12 PM

@SATW42 - Is this something to defend Disney over?

dagenspear - 4/8/2024, 6:13 PM

@SATW42 - I'd argue they have as much reason to be against Disney as you may have for taking issue with them disliking it like they do.

SATW42 - 4/8/2024, 10:21 PM

@dagenspear - again, I don’t care he doesn’t like Disney. Whatever. It’s that he feels the need to tell us in every list every day.

What the [frick] don’t you get

dagenspear - 4/8/2024, 11:59 PM

@SATW42 - But what is it that leads you to comment on it?

SATW42 - 4/9/2024, 7:39 AM

@dagenspear - because there’s an effort to shut some of these clowns up. I applaud Josh for turning comments off on certain articles because it’s already started weeding out trolls because they are made they can’t post their nonsense.

dagenspear - 4/9/2024, 8:17 PM

@SATW42 - And you think that bashing Disney is worthy of insults like calling them "clowns". How is that better than what they do?

That's also not an argument for what you're doing.

TheManWithoutFear - 4/8/2024, 9:33 AM

Strange things happening at DD.

I'll wait and see how it all pans out (like i have another choice).

I've just been wondering why they didn't get one of the previous DD showrunners back for this. Last i heard it was somebody from the Punisher show, which i have a lot of reservations about.

clintthahamster - 4/8/2024, 9:47 AM

@TheManWithoutFear - "I'll wait and see how it all pans out (like i have another choice)."

IDK, seems like a lot of dudes around here are perfectly willing to make up their mind that they won't like something before it even goes into production. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

"I've just been wondering why they didn't get one of the previous DD showrunners back for this."

Stephen S DeKnight is working on a new show for Starz and Erik Oleson is working on a new show for Prime. As for Petrie and Ramirez, the former seems to be producing shorts, and the latter has returned to Broadway. Not sure that I'd want them involved, anyway.

MotherGooseUPus - 4/8/2024, 10:05 AM

@TheManWithoutFear - agreed. i'm cautiously optimistic for this as its my most anticipated MCU anything for the next 2 years... but agreed. I really wish they got a DD showrunner on this. hope they can pull it off

TheVisionary25 - 4/8/2024, 9:38 AM

That’s unfortunate since Kirsten is a fun character in the comics but with Matt seemingly still with Foggy & Karen aswell as being in a relationship with Heather Glenn , there’s no real room for her as a partner/colleague or love interest in this so i understand the removal of the actress/character.

I do hope we see her again in the future though and if not with Ms James then Melissa Fumero (Amy Santiago from B99) would be my pick.

Unites - 4/8/2024, 9:42 AM

@TheVisionary25 - Foggy gets killed early on. Karen seems to be out of the picture for most of the season. They might use her in the second part/season.

TheVisionary25 - 4/8/2024, 9:43 AM

@Unites - maybe Matt just sets up a solo practice and tries to still run it in their honor?

GhostDog - 4/8/2024, 9:41 AM

We should still get McDuffie at some point. I'd argue she has become an integral to the DD mythos, to some degree.

WhateverItTakes - 4/8/2024, 10:04 AM

In mcu he banged Jen, In neflix verse he banged Karen, went cant have him bang this girl too

TheVisionary25 - 4/8/2024, 10:54 AM

Would have been nice to see Nikki M James in the part…

She’s done tv but she’s moreso known as a stage actress (and a Tony Award winning one at that so oh well.

Apparently they had a lot of chemistry and you can tell from the set pics we got imo…

If she has deleted the casting article from her social media , likely means the character has been written out..

I doubt they would have recast her unless she’s not able to reprise the role for the second half due to scheduling conflicts with other projects.

Unites - 4/8/2024, 11:20 AM

@TheVisionary25 - She was so great The Book of Mormon! Amazing voice!

JDL - 4/8/2024, 3:00 PM

@TheVisionary25 - That woman looks 20 years older than Charlie. My initial reaction, based purely on bias, is no. Of course that doesn't mean I couldn't be sold on it but it wouldn't be easy.

TheVisionary25 - 4/8/2024, 3:09 PM

@JDL - I don’t see that but ok

She’s only a year older.

dagenspear - 4/8/2024, 3:33 PM

@JDL - But I don't think she is.

JDL - 4/8/2024, 4:45 PM

@TheVisionary25 - Wow. Does not look it at all. Or perhaps Charlie looks abnormally young for his age.

TheVisionary25 - 4/8/2024, 4:49 PM

@JDL - I think that might be the case

Dude keeps in shape.

TheSkank - 4/8/2024, 11:35 AM

I’m hoping for the best with this show, but this seems like a mess. Between this and how Blade has been handled so far, I’m really let down.

ObserverIO - 4/8/2024, 3:09 PM

Scheduling conflicts, lol, if you're in a Marvel thing you make it work.

I would love to see Jennifer Lopez play Kirsten McDuffie to Batfleck's Daredevil in Deadpool and Wolverine.

Mark Waid's DD run finally gave Matt a happy ending just before Secret Wars. It'd be nice to see Ben Affleck's Matt get a happy ending with J-Lo's Kirsten McDuffie, imo.

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