Men's Health April 29, 2026 0 Comments

The Shocking Twist That Almost Changed Daniel Blake’s Death in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Forever—You Won’t Believe What Was Nearly Scripted!

Alright, let’s dive straight into the gritty world of Daredevil: Born Again, season 2, episode 7 — “The Hateful Darkness.” Ever wonder what happens when a character’s fate gets rewritten after filming wraps? Yeah, me too. Daniel Blake, played by Michael Gandolfini, isn’t just your average ambitious politico climbing the ranks for the infamous Kingpin. Nope. He’s a layered, conflicted guy many of us somehow end up rooting for — until, well, the plot twist nobody saw coming. Spoiler alert: Daniel’s story ends in a way that was totally unexpected, even to the actor himself. Curious how the creative masterminds behind Born Again decided to pull the rug out from under us all? Buckle up, cause this tale is as much about loyalty and betrayal inside the Marvel universe as it is about the art of storytelling itself. Ready to unravel the mystery behind Daniel’s fate? Let’s get into it! LEARN MORE

5 min read

The following story contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 2, episode 7, “The Hateful Darkness.”

FANS OF THE Netflix-produced Daredevil series came into Born Again already feeling strongly about Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson). They also probably felt a certain type of way about complex villains Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio).

But what may be Born Again’s greatest feat in its two seasons is introducing characters from scratch that people might learn to love, hate, and everything in between. Perhaps the show’s greatest creation has been Daniel Blake, played by Michael Gandolfini. In Daniel, viewers have seen someone they initially questioned. We’ve seen the eager, ambitious young politico before. Daniel works for Fisk, believes in Fisk, and is a high achiever. And Fisk is a bad guy! We know this for certain.

When we first meet Daniel, he’s blindly loyal to the man otherwise known as Kingpin. As viewers, we know what Kingpin is capable of. But while we start off dubious of Daniel, you also have to consider from his point of view—he’s falling for Fisk’s PR game just like all of New York City seemingly has. He is not unique. Fisk’s charm has been working, and it has ruined many, many lives. The question becomes clear: Is Daniel destined to follow in Fisk’s footsteps and potentially reach his heights? Or will he be another victim of his treachery?

There was an easy road that Born Again could’ve taken, and it didn’t. Through the two seasons of the show to date, we’ve fleshed Daniel’s character out, and he turned out to be anything but that high-achieving pseudo villain. Instead, Daniel is someone who comes from a humble background in Staten Island, raised by a single mother. He’s someone who just wants to follow a path that he believes is for success. And through Gandolfini’s performance, we find someone who slowly but surely comes to realize he’s made the wrong choices, and gotten on the wrong train.

Daniel’s defining relationship proves to be with BB Urich (Genneya Walton). BB is Daniel’s best friend, his potential love interest, and also a journalist using his information to make sure New York City knows what’s really going on inside Fisk’s fascist administration. Deep down, Daniel knows this—and when he realizes the danger that BB’s leaking of his information has put them both in, he’s got to make a choice. And ultimately, he chooses the path of doing the right thing, and redemption. And sadly, as we see in Daredevil: Born Again season 2, episode 7, doing that right thing does redeem him, as it allows BB to go free. But that choice costs him his life.

Much of Born Again has been a bit scattershot and all over the place. Moments of greatness are interspersed by subplots that don’t seem to be going anywhere. Characters we love are on the screen as often as characters who are kind of a bore. But one thing the show without a doubt got right was Daniel’s character. Gandolfini played things perfectly, putting his bravado up front the whole time, but letting you see in his eyes and his expressions just how scared he really ultimately was. It’s a tragic arc for such an entertaining character, and someone we’ll miss on the show. But we commend Born Again for not taking the easy way out.

Watch Daredevil: Born Again Here

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Marvel Studios

Did Daniel Blake really die in Daredevil: Born Again?

Sadly, yes, Daniel Blake was reluctantly shot dead in the head by Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan) in Daredevil: Born Again season 2, episode 7, “The Hateful Darkness.”

Daniel’s arc comes to an end here. But, as it turns out, this wasn’t the original plan—the ending of episode 7 was originally shot with an entirely different storyline in mind. According to Variety,the gunshot to Daniel’s head was added in post-production.

Daniel’s fate in Daredevil: Born Again was almost completely different

It turns out that when Daredevil: Born Again originally shot the end of episode 7 with an entirely different outcome, where Buck ultimately lets Daniel go. In the originally planned storyline, Buck tells Daniel to run away. He would’ve then told Kingpin that he killed Daniel, even though he actually didn’t. There were even scenes filmed after this that would’ve aired in episode 8—scenes that now, after Daniel’s ending, obviously won’t see the light of day.

Ultimately, as showrunner Dario Scardapane explained to Variety, the show keeping Daniel alive didn’t feel like an earned ending to the storyline that had developed between him, Buck, and Fisk.

“Sometimes the arc is built in and you’re extending it a little too far. Like, wait a second. He and Buck, in their twisted friendship, both had to be true to who they were,” Scardapane told Variety. “That’s the last moment because everything afterwards seemed kind of like a weird, lame coda that didn’t pay off.”

The decision to kill Daniel off ultimately was finalized when they realized in the editing room the impact of the episode closing with that moment (changed via the magic of CGI). Scardapane called Gandolfini to let him know the change of plans, and found that the 26-year-old actor completely agreed with his choice.

“I was like, ‘Dude, I’ve got the worst news,’” he said. “And he’s like, ‘I know exactly what you’re gonna say, and it’s the right choice.’ He felt in that moment that there’s no way he’s getting out of that apartment.”

In an interview with TV Insider, Gandolfini explained why he ultimately agreed with the decision.

“After we had shot [episode] 7 and we were shooting 8, there was this weird thing of like, “OK, he had this great run, this great arc, what’s next?” I don’t think there’s really anywhere for him, and we had talked about some ideas, but these seasons are made in a vacuum; you can’t really think about season 3,” he said. “I was just like, ‘I don’t know, it feels weird, it just doesn’t really make sense.’”

Daniel gets his redemption, he tells Buck off (in one of the episode’s best moments), and, well, that’s curtains for our pal.

“I love Daniel, but it’s so right,” Gandolfini said in the same TV Insider interview.
“Where else is he gonna go? He gets this little hero’s moment, and it just felt so great, I just felt so lucky.”

Evan is the culture editor for Men’s Health, with bylines in The New York Times, MTV News, Brooklyn Magazine, and VICE. He loves weird movies, watches too much TV, and listens to music more often than he doesn’t.