Showrunner Dario Scardapane and executive producer Sana Amanat address what people will no doubt be talking about come airtime.

Daredevil: Born Again team acknowledges the Trump, ICE parallels in season 2: ‘History tends to repeat itself’

Showrunner Dario Scardapane and executive producer Sana Amanat address what people will no doubt be talking about come airtime.

By Nick Romano

Nick Romano

Nick Romano is a senior editor at ** with 15 years of journalism experience covering entertainment. His work previously appeared in Vanity Fair, Vulture, IGN, and more.

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March 17, 2026 12:00 p.m. ET

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Charlie Cox as Daredevil and Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page in 'Daredevil: Born Again'. Credit:

Courtesy of Marvel Television

- The *Daredevil: Born Again* creative team addresses the season 2 parallels to Trump and ICE.

- "As we got into post[production], things got into an art-imitates-life place," showrunner Dario Scardapane tells EW.

- Scardapane and Marvel EP Sana Amanat talk about the specific inspirations behind some of the more politically charged scenes.

Many of those watching *Daredevil: Born Again* season 2 later this month will have a difficult time divorcing what they’re seeing on screen from the current reality in America.

The story continues Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D'Onofrio) authoritarian control over New York City that really kicked off in the season 1 cliffhanger with his anti-vigilante proclamation. His special task force operates in a similar capacity to the Trump administration’s ICE, snatching dissidents off the streets and locking them away in an undisclosed warehouse filled with cages.

Even the all-black task force uniform visually resembles masked members of the real-life Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Showrunner Dario Scardapane clarifies the design was created more than two years ago. “I'm wondering if people are taking pages from our book,” he tells **.

There is, however, even more to talk about with this show. One early scene in season 2 depicts a task force official storming into a Cypriot restaurant to search for someone. The restaurateur spits and calls him a fascist, which leads to a tense reaction.

Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk in 'Daredevil: Born Again' season 2.

Courtesy of Marvel Television

According to Scardapane, the intent with this sequence was to echo the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. “What we're seeing happening in the streets of New York in *Daredevil: Born Again* happened in Cyprus in 1974,” he says. “So if you go back to the historical rise of autocrats, whether it's Nero, whether it's Pinochet, whether it's Franco, they follow a script.”

Another scene shows task force agents abducting a woman from a bodega and throwing her in an unmarked black van while a crowd of protestors surround the scene. This instance, Scardapane says, was meant as an homage to Ryan Coogler’s *Fruitvale Station* — “which is another historical example of strong-arming disenfranchised communities.”

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He also references a scene that comes “at the very end” of the season “that looks eerily like a bit of history,” adding, “That one we did lean into. If you're diving into stories that are borrowing from past events, history tends to repeat itself if not learned from."

*Daredevil: Born Again* season 2 comes from the initial 18-episode order for the Marvel Television series, though it wasn't a clear-cut path. As previously reported, Scardapane came in to help with the creative overhaul on the nine-episode first season. Six episodes had already been shot at the time. He shot three additional episodes, additional footage to rejigger the earlier material, and reshaped season 1 as Part 1 of a larger story.

If season 1 chronicles the rise of Fisk, season 2 now follows the rise of the resistance.

Charlie Cox as Daredevil in 'Daredevil: Born Again' season 2.

Jojo Whilden/Marvel

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Scardapane, speaking with Marvel executive producer Sana Amanat, acknowledges the inevitable comparisons to Donald Trump and ICE that viewers will more than likely draw when the season premieres on Disney+ on March 24. They recognized it themselves when they were editing the episodes.

“As we got into post[production],” Scardapane says, “things got into an art-imitates-life place.”

“It is wild,” Amanat agrees of the modern parallels, though she thinks of it more as “a classic Marvel story." She references various comic books, including Ms. Marvel and X-Men — the idea of an autocratic figure blaming marginalized communities to get away with their schemes.

“What's interesting about this is that the villain becomes a part of the system and controls the system,” she says. “So what does a character like Daredevil — who’s not a traditional hero. He’s not Captain America, he's not Spider-Man, he's very much someone who is a complex character into himself, realizing that he needs to become the symbol that fights back and realizing also that there is power in that collective. He can become a symbol so he can create power and motivation in a collective and that the power is ultimately with the people. I think that's a powerful story. I think we've told stories like that in Marvel before. It is a story of history, as well.”

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