In the first of two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again that debuted today, we got a guest appearance from everyone’s favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) character: Kamala Khan…’s (Iman Vellani) father, Yusuf Khan (Mohan Kapur). And while it’s exciting and all to find out where Ms. Marvel’s dad works, it’s more exciting to get some potential teases, for both Young Avengers (or Champions) and maybe Ms. Marvel, Season 2.
Spoilers for the episode past this point. In the fifth episode of Born Again, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) is trying to get a loan for the law firm of Murdock & McDuffie. That’s why he’s at the bank in New York City where Yusuf works as Assistant Manager… When they’re robbed by an Irish gang looking to steal a butterscotch-colored gem from the bank’s vault.
However, the plot of the episode, which appropriately takes place on St. Patrick’s Day, is not as important as the little hints and teases Yusuf drops throughout the episode. So let’s get into how Daredevil: Born Again might bring up the “young heroes banding together” plotline that’s been sprinkled through the MCU; and how it might tease a second season for Ms. Marvel. Maybe.
Who is Kamala Khan Visiting In California?
Towards the beginning of the episode, Matt Murdock meets Yusuf, who is extremely proud of his daughter, Kamala, as well as — totally coincidentally — Jersey City’s hometown hero Ms. Marvel. To the point that Yusuf has a sparkly custom Funko Pop! on his desk at work.
However, Pop!s aside, the most important thing Yusuf notes here is the whereabouts of Kamala Khan. “My daughter, Kamala, she’s visiting some friends in California. La La Land, as they say.”
So, who is Kamala visiting in California? There are two possibilities here. The first is her friend Bruno Carrelli (Matt Lintz), who left at the end of Ms. Marvel Season 1 to join a program at Caltech. The second is Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), aka Stature from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
There’s — unfortunately — a of timeline weirdness to unpack here first, so bear with me. The first season of Ms. Marvel, in the MCU timeline, took place in 2025. The next time we saw her was in The Marvels, which takes place in 2026. And Daredevil: Born Again‘s current episodes take place in 2027. Specifically, March 2027 (hence St. Patrick’s Day).
Why do I bring this up? Well, because by this point, if Bruno started Caltech in the Fall of 2025, by the time this week’s Born Again episode hits, he’s been in school for nearly two years. That seems a reasonable amount of time for Kamala to head to California to visit him in Pasadena (where Caltech is located), and he would still be in school at this point.
However, it also links up nicely with the timeline of The Marvels ending scene. In it, Kamala breaks into Kate Bishop’s (Hailee Steinfeld) apartment to approximate the classic Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) end-credit scene from Iron Man, looking to recruit the archer to her team of young heroes. She explains the team is just her at the moment, though she has “feelers out” and adds, “Did you know Ant-Man has a daughter?”
That daughter is Cassie Lang, and she also lives in California. Granted, San Francisco, where she’s located, is a healthy five to six-hour drive away from Pasadena, where Bruno is located. But the Born Again dialogue certainly seems to indicate Kamala is visiting friends, plural. And with The Marvels ending scene taking place in December of 2026, and this episode of Born Again taking place in March of 2027, there’s a pretty clear link from one to another.
As for the team Kamala is putting together? TBD if it’s Young Avengers, Champions, or (less likely) nothing. The other question is when and where we’ll find out more about this team. Will it be in Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars? Perhaps in a theoretical Agatha All Along Season 2, where Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) and Wiccan (Joe Locke) track the soul of the latter’s brother to Cali?
Or maybe they could follow up in Ms. Marvel Season 2.
Here’s How Daredevil: Born Again Might Tease A Ms. Marvel Season 2
While speculation about Kamala being in California to recruit Stature to the Young Avengers is somewhat plausible, the potential setup for a Ms. Marvel Season 2 is… Well, not to riff off the character’s powers from the Marvel Comics, but it’s a stretch.
After foiling the bank robbery, Matt returns to the bank to check on Yusuf, and as a thank you for saving the bank — and him — Yusuf invites him over to dinner in Jersey City, which Matt gladly accepts. He also notes that he’s looking forward to meeting Yusuf’s daughter whom he’s talked so much about, so there’s clearly been a time dash from St. Patrick’s Day to the end of the episode, with Kamala back from her trip to “La La Land.”
While far from a confirmation of a Ms. Marvel Season 2, the dialogue is a classic “we visited your show, now you visit ours” deal. Which certainly would indicate that Daredevil could show up in the further adventures of Ms. Marvel and her amazing friends.
There’s one piece of evidence supporting this theory and two (potentially) against it. Supporting the idea that we’re getting a Ms. Marvel Season 2 tease? Marvel Television is actively looking to create and continue ongoing series, versus the six or so episode miniseries/mini-movies they were creating over the past few years. While Born Again is the first show to see some of the fruits of that push, it’s reasonable to think that the studio is looking through its back catalog to see what shows have legs. Ms. Marvel, with its relatively more available cast and semi-episodic rhythm anyway, could help lean into that. However, against that? Ms. Marvel didn’t do so well on Disney+. While we don’t have exact viewership numbers, the series was definitely on the lower end when it comes to Marvel TV.
But perhaps even more impactful is this was one of the episodes filmed before Daredevil: Born Again‘s creative overhaul. You might have been able to intuit that from the lighter tone, the MCU guest star, and the nearly self-contained nature of the episode. But this one was directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, who was one of the original directors of the series before nearly everything was scrapped and significant portions reshot. Nachmanoff was brought back later to help smooth over the old and new footage and shoot some additional portions. But he was directly responsible for what was episodes 3 and 4 of the season, but became episode 4 and 5.
So while, yes, Daredevil: Born Again Episode 5 is canonical, they’re likely working off a version of the show that essentially, otherwise, does not exist anymore. Meaning any plans that were being laid in for Daredevil to meet Kamala might have been scrapped along the way.
At least we’ll always have that custom Funko Pop!
Daredevil: Born Again Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of Daredevil: Born Again premiere on Tuesdays on Disney+ at 9pm ET / 6pm PT.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 with premiere dates:
- Tuesday, March 4, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 1
- Tuesday, March 4, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 2
- Tuesday, March 11, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 3
- Tuesday, March 18, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 4
- Tuesday, March 25, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 5
- Tuesday, March 25, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 6
- Tuesday, April 1, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 7
- Tuesday, April 8, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 8
- Tuesday, April 15, 2025: Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 9 *Season Finale*
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