Daredevil: Born Again Star May Have Let Slip a Beloved MCU Hero's Return
Let’s be Frank: the spin is over. The numbers are in, and the fallout starts now.
So, remember when the word was that Frank Castle wasn’t coming back for Daredevil: Born Again season 2? That may have aged about as well as a carton of milk. A new Instagram post from a familiar face in the Netflix era just stirred the pot in a big way.
The Instagram breadcrumb
Royce Johnson — the guy who played Detective Sergeant Brett Mahoney, the NYPD cop who kept getting dragged into Matt Murdock’s messes — posted a set of photos on Instagram (@iamroycejohnson). In them: Charlie Cox, a couple other folks, and, surprisingly, a shot with Deborah Ann Woll (aka Karen Page) and Jon Bernthal rocking a full beard and very unmistakable Punisher energy.
Fans from the Netflix days will remember Mahoney as the reluctant but reliable cop who helped Matt and Daredevil when things got properly chaotic. Seeing him, Karen, and a very Frank-looking Bernthal together is the kind of behind-the-scenes detail that gets people connecting dots fast.
What the beard might be telling us
The Bernthal beard isn’t random. It lines up with the look he’s been sporting while reportedly working on his own special presentation. That timing has people wondering if:
- Frank pops up in Born Again season 2 after all, despite earlier chatter saying he wouldn’t; or
- the photo is from Frank’s standalone Disney+ special, with Karen and Mahoney appearing in his world this time
To be clear: none of this confirms anything about where the scene is from. The photo proves they were together. The placement — Daredevil S2 vs. a Punisher special — is the part we’re all guessing at.
Where this leaves the street-level corner of the MCU
Either way, it’s another sign Marvel is keeping the street-level characters threaded together — Matt, Karen, Mahoney, Frank — the crew that made the Netflix run punch above its weight. If Bernthal’s back in any capacity, that’s a crowd-pleaser waiting to happen.
And about that other MCU chatter...
The post making the rounds also tosses out a wild aside about the larger MCU gearing up to face Doctor Doom — specifically, Robert Downey Jr. as Doom — in a movie titled Avengers: Doomsday later this year. That’s a big claim that has not been confirmed by Marvel. File it under rumor until someone official says otherwise.
Bottom line: Royce Johnson dropped photos with Charlie Cox, Deborah Ann Woll, and a bearded Jon Bernthal. That strongly suggests Frank Castle is active somewhere in the current pipeline — maybe in Daredevil: Born Again season 2, maybe in a Punisher special, maybe both. However it shakes out, it’s good news for anyone who likes their Marvel gritty and a little bloodstained.