Matthew Lillard's Mr. Charles Is the Missing Link Connecting Daredevil: Born Again to the Wider MCU

Well, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 just dropped its first episode, and it did more than toss Matt Murdock back into a battle with Wilson Fisk—it quietly plugged a new (and possibly major) piece into the Marvel Cinematic Universe puzzle. If you like your superhero shows with a side of government intrigue and unexpected crossovers, you’re going to want to pay attention to this one.

Wait, Is That Matthew Lillard in the MCU?

Yep, you read that right. Matthew Lillard—the guy you know from Scream, or as Shaggy in Scooby-Doo—has officially joined Marvel TV. He turns up in Daredevil: Born Again as Mr. Charles. Fans spent ages speculating he'd play some classic Daredevil baddie (Mister Fear? Stilt Man? We can dream), but Marvel went with something a little more inside baseball here. Mr. Charles is actually a CIA operative—so, not your usual Hell's Kitchen bruiser.

The Valentina De Fontaine Connection

So, why should you care about this new fed on the block? Well, Mr. Charles isn't riding solo—he answers straight to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who you might remember from a quick tour of recent MCU movies and shows (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Thunderbolts*).

For anyone keeping score, Valentina's basically the MCU's morally flexible answer to Nick Fury (less eye-patch, more scheming). In Born Again Season 2, Mr. Charles is introduced watching TV in a bar—the news is covering the sinking of the "Northern Star" near Red Hook port. He gets a phone call, and while you don’t hear who's on the other end, showrunner Dario Scardapane confirmed it's definitely Valentina. The whole point of putting Mr. Charles in is to show he operates ‘in the Val world’.

Bridging Street-Level and Government Shenanigans

We don't know if Mr. Charles comes from the comics or if he was invented for the show (chalk it up as another one of Marvel's "wait and see" moves). What's clear: he’s Valentina’s guy, representing the government, and tying New York’s street-level chaos to the higher political games we’ve seen in the likes of Thunderbolts* and Wakanda Forever.

He’s also all-in with the CIA and makes it known he’s calling the shots from Langley. The episode includes a moment where the US Attorney General gets a phone call—Mr. Charles tells him to take it. When the AG picks up, he addresses the other end as 'Miss Fontaine', and after the call, he suddenly drops his pressure campaign against Fisk. Subtle, right?

Valentina and Kingpin: Frenemies With Benefits

If you're thinking, 'Wait, have Valentina and Kingpin ever crossed paths before?'—good memory. Black Widow hinted at connections when Valentina sent Yelena after Hawkeye, but Hawkeye later revealed that was all arranged by Kate Bishop's mom, Eleanor, who's also tight with Kingpin.

This season of Born Again takes it a step further: now Valentina and Kingpin are basically in cahoots. The government (via Valentina) is apparently looking the other way on Kingpin’s shady mayoral moves, but wants to use his control of the Red Hook port to smuggle in some illegal weapons. What are those weapons for, exactly? The show’s not saying yet, but the implication is that Valentina’s arming covert operations she doesn't want American voters (or anyone else) sniffing around.

The whole Northern Star shipment might just be the tip of the iceberg—one more dirty secret for Valentina to mop up leading into Thunderbolts*.

Here's How It All Ties Together:

• Matthew Lillard’s Mr. Charles debuts as a CIA agent connected to Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.
• Valentina, now CIA director, protects Kingpin’s criminal activity in exchange for access to New York’s ports.
• This relationship explains why Kingpin hasn't shut down the New Avengers in Manhattan—even during his anti-vigilante crusade. Government contracts trump mob boss ego, apparently.
• The Red Hook smuggling subplot is likely laying groundwork for whatever covert chaos is coming in Thunderbolts*.

The Timeline: Where Are We In The MCU?

Total Film cleared up the setting here: Born Again Season 2 is six months after Season 1. Season 1 plays out mostly in early 2027 (notably including a St. Patrick’s Day episode), before the events of Captain America: Brave New World (which happens after President Ross’s first 100 days—think late April or early May 2027).

So, Season 2 lands somewhere between August and October 2027. That puts it before—or maybe overlapping with—Thunderbolts*. The timeline details aren't just nerd fodder: because of this overlap, it makes sense why Fisk allows the New Avengers to operate in NYC, even though he’s made a big public stink about vigilantes. Valentina can overrule him, and he doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds (or blackmails) him.

What Happens Next? Season 3 Teases, With Bonus Julia Louis-Dreyfus

This is all laying some pretty clear tracks for Season 3. Showrunner Dario Scardapane has ideas for bringing Valentina even more directly into Daredevil's story. He teased:

'For me, personally, away from everything MCU, I would love her to be part of our world. There’s a story in the back of my head I would love to tell you, but I don’t know; those choices aren’t mine.'

Even if nothing’s official, it’s not hard to see the appeal. Valentina made her first MCU appearance in a streaming series, so showing up in Born Again isn’t a stretch. Honestly, the idea of Julia Louis-Dreyfus doing verbal battle with Vincent D’Onofrio and Matthew Lillard sounds like a borderline fever dream for Marvel nerds (in a good way).

When we last saw Valentina, she’d unveiled The New Avengers, basically claiming Yelena Belova as her own. As CIA director, she now has even more incentive to keep both her superhero “assets” and bigger fish like Kingpin happy. That shifting balance of power is classic Marvel—nobody’s ever really in control, are they?

If Season 3 does tackle the 14-month gap between Thunderbolts* and the next big MCU film (Avengers: Secret Wars), that could be plenty of screen time for Valentina to work her manipulative magic—and maybe explain her future absence from other upcoming movies.

In short: Daredevil: Born Again is tying the Netflix roots of Matt Murdock’s world into the political, interconnected swirl of the recent Marvel movies, and it’s doing it in a way that actually works (which, let’s admit, hasn’t always been a Marvel strong suit). If you want to see Marvel's back-room deals hit street level, keep watching where Valentina and her new CIA stooges pop up next.