Who is Muse? How Daredevil: Born Again Could Introduce the MCU’s Grisliest Villain Yet
Matt, Karen, and Foggy may be facing an even greater level of danger than fans think.
2023 was a rough year for Daredevil fans. Production on the show’s long-awaited, quasi-sequel series, Daredevil: Born Again, began in March of last year, but it was quickly shut down just a few months later by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA labor strikes. In October, it was revealed that Marvel was so unhappy with the initial creative direction for Daredevil: Born Again that the studio was planning to completely overhaul the series.
After months of delays and setbacks, though, Born Again finally resumed filming. A recent batch of set photos from the show’s New York-based production have even suggested that the series may feature the Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of one particularly unsettling comic book villain: Muse.
If the character does, indeed, have a role in Daredevil: Born Again, that may confirm one promising detail about both the series itself and its place within Marvel’s ever-evolving Disney+ initiative.
Who is Muse?
Muse holds up a paintbrush on the cover of Daredevil Vol. 5 #14. Published in 2016.
One recent set photo from Dardevil: Born Again features a piece of spray-painted street art depicting Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) that is, notably, signed by an artist named “Muse.” Fans have understandably taken the detail as confirmation that the comic book villain of the same name — an insane street artist who has a penchant for using blood and human bodies in his art — will appear in some capacity in Daredevil: Born Again. It’d make sense if Muse does show up in the forthcoming Disney+ series, too.
Muse has had several interactions with Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil, in the comics. Introduced in 2016, he even appears in a storyline involving Wilson Fisk’s mayoral campaign — a Born Again plot point that was teased in Echo’s post-credits scene and confirmed by photos from the show’s set. In that story, Fisk not only becomes the Mayor of New York, but he also pushes anti-vigilante policies meant to villainize Daredevil, The Punisher, and all of their fellow New York-based street heroes. Muse, for his part, gets caught one night by a group of cops while creating a mural for The Punisher, and he proceeds to kill them and decorate his mural with their dead bodies.
His actions only give Fisk an excuse to further commit to his anti-vigilantism agenda, and it’s not hard to imagine a similar event occurring at some point in Daredevil: Born Again. Either way, if Muse really is in the Disney+ series, then that means Born Again may very well end up being just as dark — if not darker — than Netflix’s Daredevil. That would, in turn, make Daredevil: Born Again easily the darkest TV show or movie that Marvel Studios has ever directly produced. It is, after all, hard to hide the darkness and brutality of a character like Muse, a villain who literally paints a mural using the blood of over 100 missing persons.
Daredevil: Born Again will reunite its Netflix predecessor’s beloved core trio.
Marvel, to its credit, didn’t try to shy away from the violence of Daredevil in Echo. Not only did one of the trailers for the latter show feature several brutal clips from the beloved Netflix series, but it also emphasized the physical effects of Wilson Fisk’s rage far more openly than Hawkeye ever did. That said, Echo still wasn’t nearly as violent as Daredevil, The Punisher, Jessica Jones, or any of Netflix’s other Marvel shows, which is partly why Daredevil fans have been concerned about how well Born Again will live up to their expectations for it.
This far out from the show’s premiere, it’s impossible to say whether it will be as violent and hard-knuckled as its Netflix predecessor. The potential presence of a villain like Muse does, however, make it seem far more likely that Daredevil: Born Again will have the darker tone that fans want.
If he truly is in the series, here’s hoping that he doesn’t decide to involve Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), or Matt Murdock’s (Charlie Cox) other friends in any of his… artistic endeavors.
