DP Hillary Fyfe Spera wrote in details about her work on the new season of Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again. Moving to season 2, she built upon the visual language she created in the pilot of season 1 for the worlds of Fisk and Daredevil and translated that language into higher stakes, larger action sequences, and amplified conflict.
Spera is well-known for her credits on Showtime’s highest-watched series, Dexter: New Blood, The Flight Attendant starring Kaley Cuoco, HBO’s documentary series Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults, pilot of Starz’s P-Valley, Netflix’s popular show YOU, and the pilot for Warner Bros. The Lost Boys. Her feature credits include Lionsgate feature Run; the Sony Pictures’ reboot of The Craft: Legacy; and Netflix feature The Package, produced by Ben Stiller; and her documentary work includes Emmy award-winning film After Tiller, SXSW Audience award winner Maidentrip, and SXSW Grand Jury award nominee Breaking a Monster.
DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN SEASON 2 – Hillary Spera. JoJo Whilden. © MARVEL 2026.
Returning for season two on Daredevil: Born Again was a special experience, as it allowed me to revisit and evolve the visual language we established in Season 1. Films of New York in the 1970s continued to be our biggest influence: Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, The French Connection, Klute, Dog Day Afternoon, and Variety, as well as photographer Saul Leiter. The story continued to mirror a similar NYC as in these films: dark corners, grit and texture of the streets, noir lighting, and the use of bold colour, representing the heartbeat of a city that was going through change and separation between people and institutions. New York exists as both contemporary and timeless simultaneously.
The challenge of season 2 included larger set pieces, more involved action sequences, and higher stakes. We continued some of the established visual elements: shooting anamorphic, long zooms, choreographed camera movement, and visual languages of certain characters’ worlds woven throughout. For season two, the aim was to push it even further visually and go bolder – using more darkness and contrast, single-source lighting, and push further into noir both in lighting and tone. Compositionally, we were able to reference the comics more frequently and intentionally. Since the story of Daredevil is street-level, the characters are human, and New York is a prominent character, it has always felt important to tell this story with grit, texture, and authenticity. Resulting in a language that features both sides: grounded visuals and heightened comic book graphic images.
In season 2, Mayor Fisk controls the city through building levels of fear and paranoia, using vigilantes as scapegoats for his violence. Daredevil is organising an uprising from the shadows, motivating both citizens and his fellow vigilantes to fight back against Fisk. Meanwhile, Fisk’s AVTF (Anti-Vigilante Task Force) terrorises neighbourhoods. As tensions rise throughout the season, the conflicts between the vigilante resilience and the oppression come to blows in riots in the streets. It was important to me that these scenes feel as real as possible, so I drew from my background in non-fiction work to approach these moments like a verite documentary.
DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN SEASON 2 – Hillary Spera. JoJo Whilden. © MARVEL 2026.
In episode 6, a riot at City Hall depicts tensions exploding between the vigilante uprising and Fisk’s task force. We shot it handheld, but started with a very calm, observational lens, and when the conflict escalates, the handheld operating changes in an instant to a disoriented, frenetic camera to allow us to get swept up within the chaos. Our operators, Tom Schnaidt (A), Blake Johnson (B), and Andrew Juhl/Jon Vendetti (C) were active participants within the scene. We discussed finding moments similar to a way you would approach shooting verite. It needed to feel disorientating and discovered. In addition, the cameras were embedded within the crowd, shooting various parts of the scene simultaneously.
Our gaffer, Charlie Grubbs, Key Grip Matt Staples (and their teams) worked to find a way to shoot 360 degrees as much as possible, as it would be if it were a real event. Our goal was to create an environment that allowed the cameras and performances to continue without pause. We used large sources on lifts located on adjacent streets and buried into the background, in order to provide depth far beyond where the riot occurred in City Hall Plaza, and further allowing us to look in almost any direction. The lights had to be high and broad sources, mixed with hard, focused sources to provide a strong backlight covering a large area. We also had many practical sources in the form of headlights from the ATV vehicles, gun-mounted flashlights, iPhone lights, and emergency lights. We also supplemented these practical lights with movers on the ground, sources that replicate sodium vapor streetlights, and fluorescent tubes. This scene featured large video testimonials from the Resistance projected on the façade of the City Hall. Since they needed to be specifically placed for maximum illumination, our art department built kiosks to house the large 4K projectors as part of the set design on the plaza, allowing us to use them practically and their beam as another motivated light source. Finally, we used SFX fires, actual weather components (rain), exterior atmosphere, all adding to the chaos, disorientation, and texture of the scene.
DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN SEASON 2 – Hillary Spera. JoJo Whilden. © MARVEL 2026.
Meanwhile, Fisk observes the plaza from a window in City Hall, overlooking the chaos below. We replicated the light of the video projections to play on his face, a mixture of red and white light – signifying the eternal struggle between Fisk and Daredevil. The camera movement, in contrast to the scene below, utilises a more controlled camera language of Fisk’s world. This same visual language is used in the funeral scene of Fisk’s wife Vanessa. He is seen in a wide frame, centered frame from above, as the only character wearing white in a sea of black. His coverage is closer but with wider lenses, and always isolated, clean within his own frame, and usually shot from below the eyeline. As he leaves the chapel, Fisk’s hard white light overcomes the frame and transitions the scene out.
The parallels between Fisk and Daredevil are shown in the intimate scenes as well. The world of Matt/Daredevil and Karen is shot with warmer light, handheld and more intimate frames, usually much dirtier with longer lenses to suggest the more humanistic language. Scenes with Fisk and Vanessa have similar frames but are true to the language of that world: on dolly, and with wider lenses for coverage, to suggest a colder, more controlled world. This language then transitions in the scenes with Fisk and Vanessa in the hospital, prior to her death. For the only time in the show, the camera becomes handheld and very intimate, using longer lenses and heavy foreground, overlapping and connecting them both in the frames. His signature white light is softer and more forgiving, depicting a rare glimpse of his humanity, finally in these moments where everything he has is being stripped from him.
DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN SEASON 2 – Hillary Spera. JoJo Whilden. © MARVEL 2026.
The concept of connectedness between the characters’ worlds and visual languages is one that we use throughout the season, evolving it parallel to their story arcs. The characters of Fisk and Daredevil are doomed to eternally be two sides of a single coin, and the visual language of the show is a representation of the consequences of those two opposing, yet parallel forces.
DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN SEASON 2 – Hillary Spera. JoJo Whilden. © MARVEL 2026.
