After a turbulent first season shaped by a late creative overhaul, Daredevil: Born Again has found its footing with a far more confident and cohesive second season. According to showrunner Dario Scardapane – who stepped in midway through Season 1– this season finally reflects “the show it wants to be,” both in tone and in character.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 successfully recaptures the tone and spirit of the original Daredevil that audiences connected with, while reintroducing key fan-favorite characters such as Karen Page, Bullseye, and Jessica Jones in meaningful, large-scale roles.

I spoke with Dario Scardapane about the decisions behind those storylines, the philosophy guiding characters like Bullseye and Matt Murdock, the impact of major losses, and how these threads are already feeding into an evolving Season 3.

Demet Koc: Hi, how are you doing?

Dario Scardapane: I’m all right. It’s funny to be in the middle of seasons where everybody’s talking about season two, but I’m like writing the finale for season 3.

Yeah, it must be so. You’re on set, and then everyone’s talking about Bullseye and whatever happened in the last episode of Daredevil: Born Again.

Dario Scardapane: Yeah, I’m glad people are enjoying season two as much as they are. It was a lot of fun to make.

I was going to ask, how have you been feeling about the reception of this season so far? It has been very positive.

Dario Scardapane: Yeah, it’s great! As everybody knows, I came in late after they’d shot 6 episodes of season one, and that season was kind of a mixed bag, but this one really feels like the show it wants to be. I’m very glad that the people who are watching it feel as good about it as we did making it – Vincent and Charlie and everybody involved.

It’s got a tone and a feeling that we’re all really excited about, and we weren’t able to do that completely in season one because they’d already gone down a road.

Just things like seeing the diner scene on camera… I remember when Chantelle Wells wrote that, and we talked about it in the room, she wrote it in the script. Wilson Bethel got all excited, and then almost a year later, it’s there on TV and people are digging it, so it’s great.

Yeah, and that episode was a major turning point for the show. What led to the decision to have Vanessa killed by Bullseye?

Dario Scardapane: We kind of knew this was gonna happen from the beginning of the story in terms of when Foggy died. That’s like a checkmark on the Fisk side. So there has to be a checkmark on Matt’s side, too. There has to be balance. This fight between the two of them poisons everything around them, so, in many ways, it’s kind of an intentional irony that the same hand took away their loved ones.

As we will see in upcoming episodes, Bullseye doesn’t approach that with any morality. He did what he did for reasons, and he can’t really understand what the fuss is. So that makes it: Who’s responsible? Is Matt responsible for Vanessa? Is Fisk responsible for Foggy? Keeping that kind of always in conversation is part of the fun.

Are we seeing something like a redemption arc for Bullseye, or is he ultimately someone who can’t be fixed?

Dario Scardapane: I don’t think where he ends up at the end of the season could in any way, shape or form be called redemption. I don’t think that [happens] in the comics, in our lore – in our world.

When Bullseye says I’m one of the good guys, you can never take that seriously, and that only exists in his mind.

I don’t know if Bullseye can be redeemed for us in the normal world. Out there, there’s no redeeming him.

Yeah, and I think he’s so much fun the way he is. He’s so chaotic – can do good things, can do bad things – but it’s always fun to see him do whatever he does.

Dario Scardapane: Yeah, there’s some pretty great Bullseye stuff that we’re doing in season three. I think that the thing about this character is that in his own mind, he’s completely justified in anything he does, and he enjoys it. In this world where we have a lot of brooding characters – a lot of conflicted characters – the honesty and joy of Bullseye is a good thing to witness.

And about someone he has killed… Many fans were hoping Foggy might somehow return. There were some speculations based on the set stuff, and also you shot some flashbacks, so people were saying he could return. Is his death something you’re committed to, or is there still room for surprises?

Dario Scardapane: There’s always room for surprises, and I don’t want to get hopes up, nor do I want to give anything away. I think Charlie’s already addressed this. There are versions in the books where Foggyʼs death was faked.

There are different runs that have done different things, but in our version of Daredevil: Born Again, in order to kind of kick the story off in a way that we didn’t take lightly, that loss colors everything that Matt does in every episode from here on out. So, to make that, “Oh, it was all a dream,” or “Oh, it was fake,” really lessens the impact on Matt, and Karen, and their little nuclear family.

This is Marvel, man. You have characters playing other characters 10 years later. Anything can happen, but in our story, the loss of Foggy is very real and has a very real impact on Matt for the entirety of the story. I think you see that in episode 5 where this layer cake that we made of Matt contemplating forgiving the man who killed Foggy, and remembering Foggy’s kind of commitment to mercy, that stuff only really works if Foggy’s gone-gone.

Karen Page also has been a great addition to Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, and she has a strong sense of justice, but it doesn’t always align with Matt’s. Matt thinks that everyone deserves a chance, or you shouldn’t kill someone, but Karen thinks the opposite. Are they moving toward the same destination by different paths? What’s happening with that?

Dario Scardapane: A hard question to answer because Karen is kind of about the truth, regardless of how much it hurts. And Matt, I think, has a more Catholic sense of morality, and hereafter, an idea that the sum of the things that we do plays out on a higher plane.

Karen’s a lot more practical, in terms of her position in the resistance and her fighting against Fisk… She says “at least he’s efficient” about Frank. Karen’s a little more bloodthirsty than that, especially now.

Are they heading to different places?

Dario Scardapane: At the end of the season, where they end up is both surprising and inevitable, and I think that they’re both prepared to sacrifice everything for each other. But I don’t think they have the same worldview. I don’t think they ever have.

Also, Matt’s refusal to kill Fisk indirectly leads to a lot of suffering. How does he reconcile that morally and will we see that internal conflict evolve through season three?

Dario Scardapane: The easy answer is yes. I mean, at some point – I think it’s in the upcoming episode, so minor spoiler – there’s a musing by Matt, “can you imagine what would have happened had we never met and how many people would still be walking around?” And in the very first season of the Netflix show, it really was to be or not to be, should I kill Fisk or not kill Fisk? And he doesn’t now.

Had he done that, he would have put a stain on his soul, but all these problems would have been erased by not accepting that. By not crossing that boundary, he’s led to more suffering, more pain, but, in a way, he’s done the right thing.

I think that’s the fun of the character Daredevil. He’s a lawyer who goes out and breaks bones at night. He’s doing the right thing, but so many of the results of doing the right thing turn out wrong for the people he loves. He’s trying to forge the path of the righteous man. But it’s not exactly working out.

I believe that Matt has a very, very strong moral compass, and he works really, really hard to follow that. But the world sometimes doesn’t fall in line with his ideals.

Yes. This season of Daredevil: Born Again also steps away from the legal chess and courtroom Matt dynamic.

Dario Scardapane: That was hard because you have Matt as a fugitive. So it was very hard to put him into the courtroom, but one of the elements of the show that we all love, I think fans and writers alike, is Matt being a hero in the courtroom. So, it’s been less than in the Netflix show or in last season. But I think that the courtroom scenes that do happen have quite an impact.

We see that Jessica is now pulled into the orbit of Fisk. What made her the right character to bring at this stage, especially given how much more settled she seems at the start?

Dario Scardapane: I think that for Jessica, the idea that they’re hunting vigilantes means that sooner or later, they’re gonna come for her and the people she loves. When that touches up against her family, that’s it. Then all bets are off.

It’s as much fun for you guys to see Krysten back [as for us]. Having her come into our world was just so great. And, it adds a flavor and it builds out part of the street level world.

I don’t think there’s anybody else who can truly do it. She doesn’t have a mask, she doesn’t hide herself, so she’s more vulnerable as a vigilante than somebody like Matt is. They can literally just come to her house and round her up, and she knows that if Fisk wins, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen.

We also have some hints of a larger street level world forming. Can you talk about the idea of connecting characters like Jessica and Luke to figures like Mr. Charles?

Dario Scardapane: Well, in the story that we’re presently talking about, Danielle’s father, it’s pretty obvious who that is. And that connection has echoes through the corner of the world that we’re playing in. I worked on those Netflix shows, all of our stages were next to each other, all of the shows, writers’ rooms were in the same building. There was a lot of cross-pollination between the staffs and the casts, and we all felt part of one big world.

So, without giving too much away – a lot has already been speculated on – having Jessica’s extended family and having Luke’s world expand as we move forward has been part of the plan since day one.

Are there any plans or any interest in bringing back characters like Elektra or Colleen in the future?

Dario Scardapane: The best way I could put this without giving too much away is that what we do when we’re in the writer’s room is we go and look at some of the iconic comic book runs. We look at a lot of the things that seem to make sense in the story that we’re moving forward, and then when the time comes to bring a character in or to add a storyline, we have our wish list. Everybody you have mentioned so far is on that wish list. There’s the stuff that I would love to do, there’s the stuff that they’re doing in the larger MCU and sometimes those align and sometimes they don’t.

The world that we’re doing with this show is very Frank Miller-esque, for lack of a better word. Chip [Zdarsky] and [Brian Michael] Bendis, those artists and writers, they have a very kind of particular tone and a particular sweet spot, and a lot of the characters that you’ve mentioned work in that sweet spot.

So that was my roundabout way of saying I would love to, but I’m not gonna answer specifically.

I don’t know if you can talk about this, but there were set pictures from season 3 with Iron Fist, Luke Cage.

Dario Scardapane: Those guys, they just came by to say hi, right? Yeah, I can’t talk about any of that.

Season 3, I think people will enjoy very much and you will see some familiar faces.

What kind of villain are we going towards in season 3? Can you give any hints? No names, just hints.

Dario Scardapane: You know, there are people who who are like, “oh God, Matt and Fisk,” but I actually feel that Matt and Fisk are getting closer and closer together as time goes by, in terms of, if you look at where they both end up at the end of season two, it’s easy to kind of start thinking about. Their battles are more revealing of who they are, and I think that they’re heading towards that set of revelations getting sorely tested, not exactly by each other.

There was a fan question. They want to know if you actually filmed the scene where Matt and Karen spray paint Daredevil’s new suit.

Dario Scardapane: Oh, well… Yeah, we did. It’s funny. So there was a version of this a cut at one point, you don’t really see the spray paint. It’s not really a wide shot, it’s very close up and you see flashes of red being covered in black, and it’s pretty surreal and everything. The reason it was decided not to do that whole thing is that the interlocking D’s would have been given away then, and it was much more interesting to see them for the first time on him in motion.

Yeah, everyone was like going crazy over double D’s, they really love that suit.

Dario Scardapane: It’s about time. We were kind of nodding towards the Shadowland suit, and then what our costume designer Emily Gunshow came up with was just fantastic.

He starts out in the full black suit, and then as the battles of the season happen, the paint’s chipping away. So the red’s starting to peek out of the black, and I just love that. I love what he looks like by the time we’ve almost stripped all of Daredevil away from him.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is now streaming on Disney Plus.