The jury is still out on whether Daredevil: Born Again will live up to the enormous hype or not, as for every positive update we received about the Disney Plus revival, it’s followed by one that’s a lot more dispiriting. To pick two examples, for instance, Jon Bernthal may be back as the Punisher but Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll haven’t been invited to return as Netflix series regulars Karen Page and Foggy Nelson.
So naturally this news, combined with the announcement that another major character is being recast, is leading some more cynical fans to become convinced that Born Again is going to disappoint by taking the less interesting route of straight-up rebooting the original Daredevil show. A mind-blowing fan theory has now reared its head, however, which offers an alternate explanation for Henson and Woll’s exit that, if it turned out to be true, might actually go someway to absolving the crime of leaving them out.
As Twitter user Lunwi88 pitched, what if Born Again is revealed to not be a reboot but a prequel and is set “during the blip and actually explores just how lost Matt is without Foggy & Karen?”
The notion of Born Again taking place during The Blip and dealing with how Hell’s Kitchen and Matt’s world is affected by the fallout of Avengers: Infinity War is an idea that’s been tossed around before by fans. And such a twist would make sense, given that a years-long stretch of Murdock’s life needs to be accounted for and how it would mirror Daredevil season one, which saw Hell’s Kitchen recovering from the events of The Avengers.
To date, this is just a fan theory, but it’s hard to imagine any other explanation for writing out Foggy and Karen that would honor everything those two mean to the Man Without Fear and not just throw them under the bus. Your honor, we request some more time to make our judgement.