WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Iron Fist: Season 2, streaming now on Netflix.
The post-credits scene of the Iron Fist Season 2 finale offers viewers not a tease of what comes next for Danny Rand and Colleen Wing, but instead a surprise preview of Daredevil Season 3, arriving on Netflix later this year. But what does the roughly minute of footage actually tell us about the return of Matt Murdock?
Played by Charlie Cox, the so-called Devil of Hell's Kitchen sacrificed himself in the finale of Marvel's The Defenders to try to save the woman, and the city, he loves from the machinations of The Hand. Buried beneath the rubble of Midland Circle, Matt is currently presumed dead by his friends, even if his actions that night are unknown to most of the population of New York. However, in the closing moments of the ensemble miniseries, Matt is revealed to be alive, if not exactly well, and recuperating in the care of nuns.
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It's a scene taken directly from Marvel's Daredevil comics, suggesting fans might get a long-hoped-for adaptation of "Born Again," the seminal 1986 story arc by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli that defined the character for generations. The return of Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, and the addition of Joanne Whaley as Sister Maggie, seemed only to affirm that.
The Iron Fist post-credits scene moves Matt from the infirmary to the more-familiar setting of the confessional booth, where, wearing his original makeshift black mask, he doesn't so much unburden his soul as signal a break with the man he was.
"I once believed that justice could be found in a court of law, and in the light of day," Matt, bandaged and bloody, says to an unseen confessor. "But I was fooling myself. Darkness only responds to darkness. And the truth is, I'd rather die as the Devil than live as Matt Murdock."
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Daredevil's bleak words suggest that his two-season-long battle to contain his violent urges, and maintain some semblance of a normal life, is over, and Matt Murdock has lost. He may have "died" in the caverns beneath, leaving Daredevil -- or, "the Devil" -- in his place.
That's certainly in keeping with "Born Again," which ran from Daredevil #227-231, in which Wilson Fisk learns the true identity of the Man Without Fear, and uses the information to systematically dismantle Matt's life. He loses his money, his law license, his reputation and his home, becoming increasingly paranoid and violent, and determined to exact revenge on the Kingpin. Finally confronting Wilson Fisk, Matt is beaten, drenched in whisky and left in a stolen taxi that’s driven into the East River; the cab’s owner is beaten to death by Matt’s own billy club, an act intended ensure is disgraced, even in his grave. However, when the police discover the cab, there’s no corpse. Matt Murdock escapes, and is found by his long-estranged mother Maggie, now a nun, who nurses him back to health, both physically and mentally, at a local church.
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Kingpin attempts to lure Matt out of hiding, first by using a Daredevil imposter, and then by hiring the deranged super-soldier Nuke to launch an assault on Hell's Kitchen. With the help of the Avengers, Nuke is defeated, and then Wilson Fisk exposed as a criminal. And Matt emerges on the other side of the experience, effectively, "born again."
Of course, there are enough differences between Marvel's Netflix dramas and the comics of the "Born Again" era that a direct adaptation of that storyline isn't possible. For example, Wilson Fisk was brought to justice in Daredevil Season 1; unlike her comic book counterpart, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) isn't a junkie willing to sell Matt's secret for a fix; and the MCU's version of Nuke, Will Simpson (Will Traval), was killed in Jessica Jones Season 2.
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Still, it's easy enough to imagine that, even from behind bars, Wilson Fisk might realize the simultaneous disappearance of Matt Murdock and Daredevil can't possibly be a coincidence. A crusade to then ruin Matt's name and destroy his friends and associates would be at home in the Kingpin's repertoire, and draw Daredevil into the open.
The post-credits scene would seem to find Matt at a low point if, sadly, probably not his lowest, as he descends into darkness to mete out justice, or at least his version of it.
Arriving later this year on Netflix, Daredevil Season 3 stars Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, Wilson Bethel, Jay Ali, and Joanne Whaley as Sister Maggie.