Renewz

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 — Kingpin’s Martial Law and the Punisher’s Absence Explained

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 — Kingpin’s Martial Law and the Punisher’s Absence Explained
source: gettyimages
March 24, 2026

The latest chapter of Daredevil: Born Again pushes the grit of New York to the fore, with Mayor Fisk flexing his power by declaring martial law, banning vigilantes, and fielding a private anti-vigilante task force.

In Season 2, Matt Murdock leads a clandestine resistance to take back the city, even drawing Jessica Jones into the fight. The run-up to the season has sparked chatter about possible crossovers, including a Spider-Man appearance, fueled by fan speculation around a Brand New Day trailer.

One confirmed absence, however, is The Punisher. Vincent D’Onofrio explained on X that Jon Bernthal’s schedule kept him away from Born Again Season 2. He noted Bernthal was busy with his own Punisher project and a Spider-Man crossover, expressing enthusiasm for seeing him in those other ventures.

Fans had hoped Bernthal would reprise Frank Castle after his escape from Fisk’s warehouse prison at the end of the previous season. In the current arc, though, the Punisher won’t be Matt Murdock’s ally — at least not in Season 2. Yet Bernthal’s presence remains felt in another corner of the Spider-Verse, where he pops up in the Brand New Day trailer, trading blows with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man before the web-slinger intervenes.

There’s even talk from showrunner Dario Scardapane about the Punisher’s fate potentially returning in Daredevil: Born Again Season 3, with hints that the broader mystery could be teased in the final moments of Season 2.

Until more details surface about the Punisher’s return and Born Again Season 2’s trajectory, fans can look ahead to our roundup of the most anticipated TV shows of 2026.

Related links

By submitting, I confirm I have the right to share this link and I agree to link back to this article from the submitted page. Duplicate URLs are rejected. Up to 5 links per page.

GraphQL · 316 ms 
query Q($id: Int!, $domain: Int!, $srcId: Int!, $hasSrc: Boolean!, $hasSelf: Boolean!) {
  self: qa_ai(where: {id: {_eq: $id}}, limit: 1) @include(if: $hasSelf) {
    id
    title
    text
    date
  }
  linksarticle: qa_ai(where: {domain: {_eq: $domain}, id: {_neq: $id}}, order_by: {id: desc}, limit: 8) {
    id
    title
  }
  linksbottom: qa_ai(where: {domain: {_neq: $domain}, id: {_lt: $id}}, order_by: {id: desc}, limit: 3) {
    id
    title
    domain
  }
  source: qa_ai(where: {id: {_eq: $srcId}}, limit: 1) @include(if: $hasSrc) {
    id
    title
  }
}
{
  "id": 6646862,
  "domain": 6,
  "srcId": 0,
  "hasSrc": false,
  "hasSelf": true
}