I wonder if ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ will be able to top ‘Daredevil’s most stressful scene

Now that the first official Daredevil: Born Again trailer is out, I can feel myself itching to start a rewatch. Daredevil is, by far, one of my favorite series of all time. Few shows, let alone superhero shows, have made me feel the same joy, terror, stress, sadness, and general fondness as those original three seasons.

I was devastated when Netflix declined to renew the show for season 4. When it became clear Disney+ was working to resurrect Matt Murdock’s story, I was elated, or at least, I was, until it was revealed that the original plan was to strip the series of almost everything that made it so great. Thankfully, though, Kevin Feige and the powers that be soon realized that was, to put it bluntly, an inordinately stupid idea, and the result is Daredevil: Born Again, airing on Disney+ on March 4.

I can’t wait. The entire gang is back together—Foggy, Karen, Frank, Fisk, Vanessa, Poindexter—and it’s clear they haven’t skimped on the gruesome violence, despite this being a Disney production. I’m pretty sure I saw someone’s arm bone in the trailer. This is definitely not a family-friendly show.

Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder if it will ever truly be able to reach the emotional depths I’ve come to expect from Daredevil. The fights are gripping and awesome, yes, but what truly made them sing were the strong emotional undercurrents in every scene. Nearly every fight sequence in Daredevil had a narrative and an emotional purpose. While I am still a staunch defender of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its potential (despite a few recent blips), I’m a little worried they won’t be able to recapture that same emotional magic.

One of my favorite scenes in the show—well, perhaps favorite isn’t the right word, as it was genuinely terrifying. Memorable, maybe?—occurs in Daredevil season 3, when Benjamin Poindexter, a.k.a. Bullseye, shows off his Daredevil get-up for the first time in the New York Bulletin’s offices. Following Matt’s struggle to accept his past as Daredevil, seeing him come eye to eye with someone desecrating his legacy like that for the first time was heartbreaking. When he catches that baton just before it hits Foggy, there’s a sense of surprise but sadness and disgust, as well. When Poindexter blatantly calls himself Daredevil, it feels like something snaps in Matt, not just because his friends are in danger but because everything he ever stood for is, too, despite his inner turmoil.

I remember watching this fight scene for the first time. It felt like I was on high alert; I could feel every hit, every stab, every punch, and at no point did I feel safe reminding myself that, without the actual Daredevil, there could be no show. The sparse lighting, the seamless switch from Matt’s superiority in close combat to Benjamin’s superiority when fighting at range, and the idea that Karen and Foggy were only hidden from view by a cheap office door genuinely rattled me. When the scene ended, and my favorites were miraculously all safe, I finally felt like I could breathe again. I had to stop my binge for a few hours to process what had happened. That scene felt like a turning point, not just for Matt but for the show in general. I’ve never been able to forget it. It stuck with me more than any other fight scene in the show, and let’s be honest, that’s saying something.

Will Daredevil: Born Again ever be able to reach such stressful yet emotionally resonant heights again? I truly hope so. The trailer has certainly amped up my hype levels, and when star Charlie Cox explained to Entertainment Weekly that he and Vincent D’Onofrio fought to minimize the interactions between Matt and Fisk because they believed “… you have to be really careful when and how you bring these two people into the same room because we have to feel like when they meet, it is an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. It has to feel like it could and will explode. The more you bring us together with no consequence, the less that illusion can maintain itself,” I felt a rush of reassurance. Cox knows this character through and through, it’s obvious that this revival is important to him.

I’m rooting for this to be as good as I believe it can be, and I’m hoping that Born Again gives me a scene that will make the stress from the Bulletin fight feel like a hug in comparison. That’s the power of Daredevil, after all. Stress and violence you can’t tear yourself away from.