Spoilers ahead for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 7 "The Hateful Darkness"
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is known for constantly releasing new content, both in theaters and streaming with a Disney+ subscription. The streaming service has provided fans who spent years watching the Marvel movies in order with Daredevil: Born Again, which has nearly ended its second season. The penultimate episode saw a huge character death happen, but that wasn't the original plan.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 has been wild, with Matt Murdock and his allies rising up against Kingpin's rule of the city. In "The Hateful Darkness" Michael Gandolfini's Daniel Blake turned coat to protect BB Urich, and was tortured and killed by Cashman. In an interview with Collider, the actor revealed he wasn't initially going to be killed off in Episode 7, saying:
I filmed scenes in Episode 8, and they just felt very weird. There were a lot of conversations about it. I was just like, ‘I don't understand his place. Where is he going? He's scorned Fisk and Buck. What's his next chapter?’ It felt really weird. It didn't feel right. So when I got the call a couple of months later, and they said, ‘Hey, we decided, actually, he dies there,’ it was like, yeah, that's right. It actually felt like a relief because it felt very appropriate, because that's what needed to happen, not only for the arc of the show, but also personally. It just felt like the right thing.
Well, my mind is blown. When Daniel was shot by Cashman at the end of the episode, it seemed pretty obvious that he was dead. But it turns out that Gandolfini actually filmed more content for Episode 8 before the decision as made to have his character die in the season's penultimate episode. Now I have to wonder what those additional scenes would have included.
So what changed? It turns out showrunner Dario Scardapane made the decision, and thought Daniel's death would simplify the story and provide a more shocking end to the episode. As Gandolfini told it:
The fact that I didn't know made it so much better because if Dario [Scardapane] had thought, ‘Daniel dies in [Episode] 7,’ he might have tied up some of those loose ends. The script metaphorically would have been ‘tighter’ or whatever, but because it's messy, because he dies in the middle of all of the stuff, it's quite shocking. So, it just felt so right. I remember telling them, ‘Look, I'm happy to fight. If I thought this wasn't right, I'd fight, but this is right. This is right.’
It sounds like Michael Gandolfini agreed with Scardapane's assessment, and didn't fight to be included in Season 2's forthcoming finale episode. Daniel was a loyal soldier for Wilson Fisk throughout Daredevil: Born Again, so it was shocking when he sacrificed himself to save BB's life. And if even he could turn against the Kingpin, the walls must really be closing in on Vincent D'Onofrio's character.
New episodes of Daredevil: Born Again airs Tuesdays on Disney+ as part of the 2026 movie release list. We'll just have to see what comes next, and how Daniel's death influences the future of the story.
