Marvel's The Defenders: 10 Ways It Sets Up Daredevil Season 3
3. The Character Is Literally Reborn
Netflix
Although it was a tad predictable, it was nice for the show to assuage fears that Matt really was dead with the reveal that he was recovering in a chapel somewhere, surrounded by nuns and, in particular, a past relation.
This 'rebirth' certainly preempts any systematic destruction at the hands of Kingpin, which is fine, really. For the purposes of The Defenders it made a lot of sense; Matt had been wrestling with himself over his obligations to fight The Hand for a year, and his 'destruction', if you will, provided the necessary base with which the character could rebuild. His bed-bound recovery in a place of worship completes this rebirth.
The Defenders was a bit on the nose with its foreshadowing and its visual cues, to say the least. Elektra constantly brushes her sai in choosing a weapon (a hint that she was fully aware of her past for a while), Alexandra talks of fighting for life as a panoramic shot brushes over a cemetery, and Matt? Well, this is as deliberate a cue as any, and one that confirms at least one kind of rebirth going forward.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
