There is a lot to be excited about when it comes to the Daredevil: Born Again cast, like the return of Jon Bernthal as The Punisher and Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin. However, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed when I found out Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson are not expected to reprise their roles as Matt Murdock’s friends and partners, Karen Page and Foggy Nelson. However, a new set detail may explain why we won’t be seeing much of Daredevil’s pals in the upcoming Disney+ series, and it’s making me feel a little bit better.
The production of Daredevil: Born Again has officially started up, and a photo of Charlie Cox dressed as Matt Murdock walking by a church with a bulletin board that has the date March 15, 2020 on it was posted on Twitter by Daredevil Updates. This date has sparked a theory that this upcoming Marvel show might take place during the Blip, which means half the population is still gone, so maybe Foggy and Karen were among the many who disappeared after Thanos snapped his fingers.
While this is just a theory, it makes a lot of sense, and I could totally see the Blip being the reason we won’t get to see Foggy and Karen in Season 1 of this new Daredevil show. I found it hard to believe that Woll and Henson weren’t going to be included in the upcoming Marvel series, because they were integral characters in Daredevil during its Netflix days. However, if they got snapped away as Spider-Man, Black Panther, Falcon and the Winter Soldier did, it makes their absence a bit more logical, and it adds a new level of complexity to Daredevil: Born Again.
In various street-level projects, like Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Spider-Man: No Way Home we’ve seen the negative impact the Blip had on the world, especially when everyone came back, and many people were left displaced. Matt Murdock is a lawyer who prioritizes his community of Hell’s Kitchen, and I could totally see him taking on clients who lost their homes during the blip or lost loved ones to Thanos. So, if Foggy and Karen were taken by the Blip it seems logical that Matt would be fighting the good fight and dealing with the ramifications of the snap in Daredevil: Born Again without his partners.
Down in the comments of the photo, DriftyFilm theorized that half of Daredevil: Born Again’s 18 episodes could take place during the Blip, and the other half could show the ramifications of everyone returning. They explained that doing this it would help the MCU connect the Netflix Daredevil series to Kingpin’s return in Hawkeye, which would help fill in the blanks between Season 3 of Daredevil and his entrance into the MCU.
While this theory seems like it could pan out, this whole situation might be as simple as Woll and Henson didn’t have the time to return to their characters. We’ve already learned that a casting switch has been made as Sandrine Holt is now set to play Vanessa Fisk, Wilson Fisk’s significant other. So, it’s possible that Foggy and Karen could also be recast, however, the actors who played them in Daredevil are so beloved by fans it would be shocking if they recast Matt Murdock's best firends.
Hopefully, this is not the case, this fan's theory is correct, and we’ll get to see Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson return as Foggy and Karen someday. Not only would it explain their absence it would also give us a glimpse into Matt Murdock’s life between the end of the Netflix series and his return in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk. However, it’ll be a while before we get our answers, as Daredevil: Born Again is slated among Marvel’s upcoming shows for a spring 2024 release. So, while we wait to see what happened to Foggy and Karen, you can go back and watch Daredevil with a Disney+ subscription.
