Daredevil: Born Again was once set to include a special episode centered on the Punisher and Echo, before Marvel's plans for the series underwent a radical rework.
Much has already been written of Marvel's dramatic decision to reboot the Disney+ series mid-way through filming of its first season. Originally conceived as a fresh start for lawyer vigilante Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and arch rival Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), Marvel ultimately decided to rework what had already been shot into a more direct continuation of the fan-favorite Netflix Daredevil series.
This retooling saw a fresh pilot and season finale filmed, with additional scenes added featuring more characters from the Netflix show. At the same time, elements featuring newer characters were given more of a backseat — and in this vein, Marvel pulled back on a planned "bottle episode" featuring Alaqua Cox's Echo meeting Jon Bernthal's Punisher.
"They were looking to do a kind of singular bottle episode around the Punisher crossing into the Daredevil space," Daredevil: Born Again writer Jesse Wigutow revealed to IGN. "This was two, three years ago, and one thing led to another, and I came in to largely focus on that.
"It involved the Punisher and Echo kind of spending an interesting night together — not romantically, but narratively," he teased, before acknowledging the idea ultimately "fell away."
"Who knows, maybe it comes back again," he continued. "But the story has been a little kind of crooked in terms of the development, and it was part of a former idea."
While Punisher is a veteran of Marvel's Netflix era, Echo only joined the MCU more recently. Having first appeared in the Disney+ Hawkeye series as Fisk's newly-revealed adoptive niece, Marvel expanded her character in a full Echo spinoff — a show that also went through a period of creative re-development before it was ultimately released.
Now, Marvel's plans for the character of Echo remain unclear, with only the briefest of mentions given in Daredevil: Born Again's first season. Punisher, however, will next be seen in a recently-filmed Disney+ TV special that's due to air next year, ahead of the character's call-up to the big screen for an appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
"I think I'm not speaking out of turn in saying that there was an effort to make the show very separate from the Netflix [series] and kind of a new concept," Wigutow said, discussing Marvel's big Daredevil pivot. "I feel like some of that worked well, and some of it didn't. And there were expectations that weren't necessarily being met, and there was a pointed effort and a left turn — to not necessarily return to Netflix, but honor the Netflix origin of the show. It is meant to be more aligned with the Netflix show now."
Despite his Punisher and Echo episode falling by the wayside, Wigutow said he remained close to the show's development and has gone on to write for its upcoming second season, which is due to air on Disney+ in March 2026.
"I obviously can't say very much," Wigutow said of Daredevil: Born Again's sophomore run, "but it's a very big muscular season that revolves around Fisk in office as mayor. There's a lot of political intrigue and palace intrigue.
"What I think is really awesome about the season is that ultimately... [we have] all these moving pieces and this big kind of canvas of New York City, but at the end of the day, it's about these two characters that you care about most, almost the two face-to-face in a playground. That's the idea. They hate each other, but they need each other. And how do they get through that? That's ultimately what it all comes down to. And I think we did a really fun job of delivering that."
As IGN exclusively reported last month, Daredevil: Born Again will also return for a third season — which Wigutow confirmed he would be heading back into the writer's room "next week" to begin working on.
Next week will meanwhile see the launch of Wigutow's other major Disney project, Tron: Ares, which IGN also chatted to him about in detail. Read on here for Wigutow's thoughts on AI, ditching the franchise's typical computer setting, and reviving the sci-fi saga without the benefit of being able to rely on memorable characters such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.
Image credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios.
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