Daredevil: Born Again just closed out Season 2 with another rough ratings headline, but Marvel is not backing away from Matt Murdock.
If anything, Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 looks like it is getting bigger.
As we previously reported, Daredevil: Born Again went 0-for-17 on Nielsen, with Season 1 and Season 2 both failing to crack the Top 10 originals chart across every episode available to the ratings service. The Season 2 finale also failed to generate a bump, missing the chart during a week where the cutoff was only 334 million minutes.
Marvel is heading into Season 3 with that problem hanging over the show. The answer, at least for now, appears to be the one thing guaranteed to get longtime Netflix Marvel fans paying attention: the Defenders.
Marvel Isn’t Backing Away From Daredevil
Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 was already confirmed before Season 2 even aired. Marvel Studios’ Brad Winderbaum previously confirmed to IGN that the show had been greenlit for another season, saying, “In terms of Daredevil, yeah, we are greenlit for Season 3 and we start shooting next year.”
Filming followed through on that: Season 3 went in front of cameras in early March in New York City, keeping the same late-winter production rhythm as the first two seasons. Marvel TV’s Winderbaum has pointed to a March 2027 release on Disney+, which would continue the show’s tradition of March premieres.
The renewal also made Daredevil: Born Again the first live-action Marvel Studios series to reach a third season. Most of the live-action MCU shows have either been limited series or stopped after one or two seasons. Daredevil is now the rare Marvel Studios live-action series being pushed as an ongoing show.
The timing is what makes it interesting. Marvel is not reacting to a breakout streaming hit. It is moving forward after two full seasons that failed to show up on Nielsen, while other streaming originals, reality shows, and lower-profile titles managed to chart.
So Season 3 is not just another round of Matt Murdock vs. Wilson Fisk. It is the next real test of whether the street-level Marvel corner can grow beyond the fanbase still invested from the Netflix years.
The Defenders Are The Season 3 Bet
The big hook is the Defenders reunion.
Entertainment Weekly reported that Mike Colter and Finn Jones were spotted filming Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 scenes in New York City with Krysten Ritter. Colter played Luke Cage, Jones played Danny Rand/Iron Fist, and Ritter already returned as Jessica Jones — with Colter making a cameo in the Season 2 finale, reuniting with Jessica and their daughter.
With Charlie Cox back as Matt Murdock, that points to the first full on-screen reunion of the original Netflix-era Defenders since the 2017 The Defenders miniseries.
Marvel is making a big move here. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist have been sitting on the shelf for years while Marvel Studios sorted out what counted, what did not, and how much of the old Netflix universe it wanted to bring back. Daredevil: Born Again has now become the landing spot for all of it.
Vincent D’Onofrio returns as Wilson Fisk, alongside Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Wilson Bethel as Bullseye, and Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn, with Dario Scardapane back as showrunner.
Season 3 is also expected to introduce new villains after five combined seasons built around Fisk. Scooper Daniel Richtman has claimed The Hand will return — the shadowy ninja organization last seen in The Defenders — though Marvel has not confirmed anything, so take it as rumor for now. It would line up neatly with a Defenders reunion.
Interestingly, The Hand is also confirmed for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and rumors point to a Charlie Cox appearance. However, Cox has shot down the Brand New Day claims.
The return of the Defenders also gives Marvel a cleaner marketing hook than Season 2 had. Instead of selling another season of Fisk, vigilantes, and New York politics, Season 3 can be sold as the Defenders coming back together in the MCU to take on a greater threat.
For longtime fans, that is the pitch. For Marvel, the question is whether nostalgia is enough to bring in viewers who skipped the first two seasons.
The Ratings Problem Hasn’t Gone Away
The issue is that online buzz and actual streaming viewership are not the same thing.
Daredevil: Born Again has had plenty of fan conversation, especially around returning Netflix characters, the darker tone, Bullseye, Kingpin, and the show’s course correction after Marvel retooled the original version — which we exclusively reported before the trades confirmed it. But Nielsen has told a different story.
Season 1 missed the Nielsen originals chart for all nine episodes. Season 2 then missed for all eight episodes. That brings the series to 0-for-17 with Nielsen, not a single Top 10 appearance across two complete seasons.
It is not just Nielsen, either. Luminate data showed Season 2 lost roughly half its audience compared to Season 1, and at one point the series was tracking worse than Echo. Even the cast has noticed, with Wilson Bethel admitting frustration with the series.
The Season 2 finale should have been the best shot. Finales usually get a catch-up bump, especially for serialized superhero shows. Instead, the finale missed during a week where the bottom title on the chart had 334 million minutes watched.
Season 3 Is The Next Nielsen Test
The Defenders reunion is the right move creatively and the obvious move from a marketing standpoint. It even gives Marvel a shot at fixing the weakest part of the old lineup, with Finn Jones’ Iron Fist never having had the fan support the others did.
But it also raises the stakes. After two seasons of Nielsen zeroes, Season 3 can no longer be judged only by social media excitement or set-photo reactions. The Defenders reunion gives Marvel the hook. Now the show has to prove the audience is there.
If Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 finally charts when it arrives in 2027, Marvel will have its proof that doubling down worked. If it misses again, then even the Defenders may not be enough to turn online hype into mainstream streaming numbers. Either way, we will be tracking it.
