Daredevil: Born Again brings Ayelet Zurer back as Vanessa?

Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio have been locked in to reprise the roles of hero Matt Murdock / Daredevil and villain Wilson Fisk / Kingpin, characters they originally played on the Marvel-inspired Netflix series Daredevil, on the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again ever since Marvel and Disney+ started pushing the show forward. When their supporting cast was being assembled at the end of 2022, it was announced that Sandrine Holt (American Gigolo) had signed on to appear on the show as a love interest to the Fisk – with the word being that she was taking over the role of his wife Vanessa Marianna Fisk, who had previously been played by Ayelet Zurer on the Netflix show. Apparently there had been scheduling issues with Zurer, who said she was “sad to not take part” in the new series… which, at the time, wasn’t meant to line up with the Netflix show perfectly. Filming started in early 2023, then when the strikes hit, it was decided that it needed to undergo a creative overhaul. This overhaul has ensured that this new series is now directly connected to the Daredevil series that ran for three seasons on Netflix. As of the recent Daredevil-related series Echo, all of the Netflix shows (which also included Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and The Defenders) have been made canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and due to the delays caused by the strikes and creative overhaul, it looks like Ayelet Zurer was able to take part after all.

A Daredevil: Born Again set picture shared by New York Newswire’s Steve Sands on Instagram showed Zurer filming a scene with D’Onofrio.

So it appears that Zurer is back as Vanessa. There’s no word on whether or not Sandrine Holt will still be appearing on the show in a different role.

Dario Scardapane, who worked on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and the Netflix series The Punisher, was brought in to serve as showrunner on Daredevil: Born Again during the creative overhaul. The behind-the-scenes shake-up also led to Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, the directing team who were at the helm of multiple episodes of Moon Knight and Loki season 2, being hired as directors on the show. Matt Corman and Chris Ord were previously the head writers on the show, but they were let go.

In addition to Cox, D’Onofrio, and Zurer (and possibly Holt), the cast of Daredevil: Born Again includes Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, Jon Bernthal, and Wilson Bethel, reprising the roles of Murdock’s associates Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, Frank Castle / The Punisher, and Benjamin “Dex” Pointdexter / Bullseye. Also in the cast are Margarita Levieva as Matt Murdock’s love interest Heather Glenn, Michael Gandolfini as a character named Daniel Blade, Genneya Walton as BB Urich, Jeremy Earl as Anti-Vigilante Task Force member Cole North, and Lou Taylor Pucci, taking on an unspecified role.

Are you looking forward to Daredevil: Born Again, and are you glad to hear that Ayelet Zurer is back as Vanessa after all? Let us know by leaving a comment below.