How Might 'Daredevil: Born Again' And 'Thunderbolts*' Connect?

Marvel

Apr 30

The first season of Daredevil: Born Again was a terrific success for Marvel and Disney. With great reviews and reactions when it was released, surely its second season will do just as well. However, New York City is a dense location in the Marvel Universe, paralleled by the MCU, which has focused many storylines at least in part in the Big Apple. The next major MCU project is largely taking place in New York as yet another superpowered being shows up to unleash chaos on its citizens. But, how will the events of Born Again be represented in Thunderbolts*? Will they be represented at all? CultureSlate ponders this question and discusses some of the ways the two MCU properties could connect.

The Task Force

Wilson Fisk’s task force of corrupt, militarized police officers is sure to pose a threat to Daredevil in the second season of Born Again, and likely this year’s Spotlight release involving The Punisher. But they might be appearing outside of Born Again sooner than we think. Trailers for Thunderbolts* have shown various human security forces attacking different members of the hero team, and it might be that some of them are Fisk’s task force. They could also be Val’s people, turning on the Thunderbolts for some reason the film will make clear, but Fisk would not be happy with a bunch of heroes running through his city during a crisis like this.

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It may be that this is why the forces appear to be masked, their identities are being shielded to prevent proper identification, and links back to Fisk. It's also true that the task force and Fisk are not above using a crisis to their advantage. We might even see, at the height of Sentry’s rampage, a bunch of goons show up and attack the Thunderbolts instead of the real problem as a way to finish off a threat to Fisk’s power, and help construct a narrative about the destructive chaos all non-mundane human parties wreaked on the city.

The Politics

While Wilson Fisk is the mayor of New York City, he is not the Governor of the state, nor does he seem to have power over federal or national figures. It would also appear that Bucky is likely a congressman, or was a congressman, during or before Thunderbolts*. Given his birthplace, he was or is probably representing the State of New York. There’s also Val, and her takeover of Avengers Tower. While Val is likely not overly malicious, she is still a woman with goals and objectives that involve the recruitment and use of heroes to complete jobs required by the United States government, or at least the individuals she reports to within the government.

Granted, her track record doesn’t appear stellar on that front, but she seems like a woman who would both agree with some of Fisk’s ideas and be able to work with him. At the same time, it is possible Fisk wouldn’t see it that way. Bucky Barnes bringing the Thunderbolts into New York, probably with Val’s help, would be the exact opposite of what Fisk wants, which is fewer vigilantes and heroes running around through “his” city.

We could also see a political battle of sorts between Val and Bucky, something already teased in one of the upcoming film’s recent trailers that shows immense tension between Val and the Thunderbolts. She claims that Bucky served barely a few months of his term, either indicating that he lost his seat during the film, or recently did, despite only just having won it. With New York as the background to the fight against Sentry, it might be that Bucky and Val take opposite sides in Fisk’s ongoing campaign against masked heroes as a discussion regarding the nature of heroism, a topic that this film seems intent on exploring.

No Connection

Unfortunately, this is probably the most likely option given a few factors. The first is that, despite efforts by the MCU to include characters and story elements from their various Disney+ shows, the actual transition has been incredibly slow. In most cases, when it has happened, the connection is very small and is only referred to with a line or two of dialogue. Then there are the extensive changes made to Born Again’s story when the show was rebooted. If there were plans to coordinate details in both projects, the bonds between them were probably severed, and we’ll only get a line or two referring to recent “trouble” in the city as the backdrop to the Thunderbolt’s main mission. There’s also the small chance that the film will be positioned as taking place prior to Born Again, meaning that the show’s drastic impact on New York won’t factor into the story.

Next, there’s the fact that, as mentioned recently by Wilson Fisk’s actor Vincent D’Onofrio, Kingpin cannot appear on the big screen due to a rights issue. Now, perhaps Marvel could cut a deal and fix that problem for something like a cameo, but with an already full ensemble cast, such a cost might be deemed not worth it when a character can simply mention Mayor Fisk in passing. We’ll have to just wait and see how Thunderbolts* tackles content from that New York-based Marvel show.

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