In the recent trailer for Daredevil Born Again, we see Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) sitting in a diner across from each other. During this tense encounter, Fisk asks Murdock when he stopped being a vigilante. He answers by saying “A line was crossed.” We think we can safely infer that means that as Daredevil, he killed someone. Was it on purpose, or by accident? We don’t know yet. But it was enough for him to retire his Daredevil persona, seemingly for good. But who did he kill, and why? We think Marvel Comics probably hold the answer.
There is precedent in the comics for Daredevil crossing the line and killing someone. It happened fairly recently too, in 2019’s Daredevil #1 relaunch from writer Chip Zdarsky and artist Marco Checchetto. In that issue, Daredevil stops a random robbery at a liquor store. A typical day for the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, right? Except for that day, he used too much force while apprehending the robbers. He accidentally killed low-level criminal Leo Carraro with a head injury. This sent Matt Murdock into a spiral. It wasn’t intentional, but Matt Murdock felt tremendous guilt over it regardless. He temporarily quit being Daredevil, and this allowed Wilson Fisk, now Mayor, to enable laws outlawing masked heroes in New York.
We know from the trailer for Born Again that Daredevil did something terrible, and it could be a direct adaptation of these particular comics. In his nightly vigilantism, he might have just accidentally killed a criminal. Despite what TV and movies make it look like, a solid whop to the head can easily kill you, not just knock you out. Something like that would have a profound effect on the Catholic Matt Murdock, who has vowed to never take a life. We know that in the show, Mayor Fisk is also running on an anti-vigilante platform. We could get the same exact scenario as Chip Zdarsky’s comics. And it would fit perfectly into the framework of the show.
Of course, Born Again might go for something with more impact. It’s possible Daredevil killed someone on purpose, and not by accident. We know that both Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) are back, after initially not being a part of the show. It would make sense that if something tragic happened to them, Matt Murdock could snap, and cross that line. The death of either Foggy or Karen would be the one thing we can see making Matt lose it and murder someone. We don’t see him becoming a Punisher-type figure. But he could lose his cool long enough to take revenge for one of his fallen friends.
Whatever the case may be, if he does hang up the Daredevil horns in Born Again, we know it won’t be for good. If only because no one wants a Daredevil show about an ex-superhero moping around for episodes on end. He’s got too many bad guys to fight. Eventually, he’ll get over his feelings of guilt and remorse, and realize he does far more good for the city than bad. That’s what happened in the comics, and we expect something similar for his MCU debut in Daredevil: Born Again. No matter who it was that suffered when the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen crossed the line.
Daredevil: Born Again hits Disney+ on March 4.