Born Again’ Just Revealed Nikki M. James’ Character

Even as the multiverse threatens to crack in two as Marvel’s Loki hits screens, it looks like things are still just as chaotic for ground-level heroes as ever. Set to hit Disney+ sometime in 2025, Daredevil: Born Again, the sequel series bringing back everyone’s favorite Devil of Hell’s Kitchen has fans eagerly excited despite its delay by the ongoing SAG strike. Viewers of the Netflix series, for which Born Again serves as a continuation, have been clamoring for any information on the series, and it looks like some recently filed copyright paperwork for the show’s first episode has given us a pretty significant hint about the plot of the series.

The record contains all the usual, previously announced suspects: Charlie Cox returning as Matt Murdock, alongside Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, Sandrine Holt (replacing Ayelet Zurer) as Vanessa Fisk, and Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle. However, it also gives us all new information about a previously announced cast member that might change the game for Born Again entirely. Having only been announced as an undisclosed role when she joined the cast, it looks like Nikki M. James will be playing Kirsten McDuffie, a key figure in Matt Murdock’s life in the comics.

A Human Ally for the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen

Originally created for Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera’s widely-acclaimed 2011 Daredevil comics, McDuffie was an assistant district attorney who became a love interest for Matt Murdock, moving with him across the country after his secret identity was revealed. The two eventually broke up over a debacle with the Purple Children, the offspring of Jessica Jones baddie Kilgrave, but more importantly, McDuffie was a key player when Matt was arrested for a murder he didn’t commit, eventually freeing him from prison when his alter ego and regular life accidentally become intertwined. This could potentially point to an all-new direction for Matt, focused on his relationship with Kirsten and its complications once his past catches up with him.

‘Born Again’ Will Feature a Mix of Old & New Faces

The record is also populated by a handful of other additions, including the name of Michael Gandolfini’s character, Daniel Blade — a new creation for Born Again, with no connections to previous Marvel lore. Other new creations for the series seem to include a character named Sheila Rivera, played by Zabryna Guevara, and Genneya Walton as BB Urich, potentially a character connected to New York Bulletin reporter Ben Urich, an instrumental figure in Daredevil season one. Interestingly, the record also lists actress Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn, a minor character in the Daredevil comics who was also once a love interest for Matt Murdock and whose father was also connected to Kilgrave, as well as Arty Froushan as Buck Cashman — better known as Bullet, a member of Daredevil’s rogues gallery with connections to Wilson Fisk.

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But Where Are Matt’s Friends?

But even more notably, the record also lacks two figures who were instrumental to the story of Daredevil prior to its cancellation on Netflix: Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, Matt Murdock’s closest friends and coworkers. Played by Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll in the Netflix series — as well as numerous spinoffs, including The Defenders and The Punisher — Foggy and Karen were central figures in Matt’s story, helping him run Nelson & Murdock and patching up his wounds whenever he decided that fighting in a courtroom wasn’t good enough for the justice he had in mind. Despite the listing only being for the show’s first episode, it seems unlikely that either of Matt’s best friends with make the move to Disney+ with him — Woll told us last year that it’s “up to [Disney]” whether she returns or not, which doesn’t provide much hope.

Their absence, combined with the logline also revealed by the copyright record, could give us a hint as to where Matt’s journey has led him to at the beginning of the series. While short, the logline says that “longtime rivals Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) try to leave behind their darker alter-egos to serve the people of New York, only to have their pasts catch up to them”. Could this mean that Matt has moved on from his life as a crime-fighter, both in the courtroom and outside of it? No one can be sure, but it looks like we’ll be seeing him in a much different place from where we left him, both at the end of Daredevil and after his cameo in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

While the plot is still being kept under wraps, Daredevil: Born Again is set to premiere on Disney+ sometime in 2025. In the meantime, fans can stream Daredevil, as well as the rest of the Defenders Saga, on Disney+.