As the confusion continues to swirl around Marvel’s plans for The Man Without Fear, a new rumor has suggested that not only will Daredevil: Born Again feature “multiple” incarnations of the hero White Tiger, but that the street-level fighter’s plot line is one of the few elements being kept intact from the series’ original script.
This insight into both Marvel’s initial and forward-looking plans for Daredevil’s solo Disney Plus series was first brought to light courtesy of noted scooper CanWeGetSomeToast.
Taking to their Twitter account on October 23rd, the scooper asserted, “DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN is set to feature MULTIPLE White Tigers,” before proceeding to detail the jungle-cat moniker’s history within the Ayala family, understandably avoiding mention of both the High-Evolutionary-created and Black-Panther-allied versions of the character.
“In the comics, there have been 3 wearers of the mantle,” aptly detailed CanWeGetSomeToast. “Hector Ayala – the first White Tiger, Angela Del Toro – Hector’s niece and second to wear the mantle, [and] Ava Ayala – Hector’s sister and third White Tiger”.
Pressed for clarification on the by Twitter user @al3x4ndr0s15, who asked “So the White Tiger wasn’t just an element of the old script, but will it be taken into account in the new rewrite?”, the scooper confirmed that the mystical martial artist would indeed cross paths with Disney’s take on Ol’ Horn Head.
“White Tiger showed up fairly early in DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN,” CanWeGetSomeToast revealed. “As THR previously reported, they’re keeping some ‘scenes AND episodes’ of what they shot. The White Tiger plot line will definitely be taken into account and incorporated with the rewrites.”
As of writing, no further details, officially confirmed or otherwise, have yet to be provided regarding the White Tiger’s potential casting or their role in the series’ story by either Marvel themselves or any of CanWeGetSomeToast’s fellow scooper.
Notably, the White Tiger’s prospective appearance in Daredevil: Born Again is not the first time the hero’s name has been mentioned in relation to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
For a short period in 2020, word on the street suggested that a villainous version of the Latino character would be brought to life by Narcos star Tenoch Huerta in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
But as audiences now know, this rumor ended up being only half-true, as thouh Huerta did appear as the sequel’s primary antagonist, it was in the role of Namor the Sub-Mariner rather than White Tiger.
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Further, while no word has been raised on the topic of which incarnation of White Tiger will grace the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, Marvel’s own comic book history suggests that it will likely be both Hector and Angela, as their stories directly intersect with Matt Murdock’s.
As seen in the Brian Michael Bendis’ Daredevil Vol. 2 #39, after his failure to apprehend two looters who murdered a cop leaves him as the only living individual discovered at the crime scene, Hector finds himself falsely charged with the officer’s murder.
Finding himself with his back against a legal wall, Hector reaches out to Matt for help, who in turn offers to assist by serving as his fellow hero’s defense attorney.
Unfortunately for the duo, despite their best efforts, the jury eventually finds Hector guilty. Stunned by this verdict, Hector breaks out into panic, a reaction which in turn causes a scene within the court house that results in a police officer’s gun being knocked out of its holster.
Allowing his survival instincts to get the best of him, Hector picks up the weapon and makes a break for freedom. However, his escape attempt is short-lived, as upon reaching the doors to the courthouse, Hector immediately finds himself confronted by a number of police officers.
Sadly, though the officers give him multiple opportunities to surrender, Hector ultimately accepts that he would rather die protesting his innocence than serve time for a crime he did commit.
Steeling himself to see his ill-fated last-stand all the way through, Hector proceeds to respond to the officers’ requests to surrender by raising his weapon, in turn prompting them to err on the side of caution and use lethal force to end the potential threat.
And in one final and cruel twist of fate, mere days after Hector met his end, Matt is able to uncover definitive evidence of his client’s evidence – in other words, had he lived, the man once known as White Tiger would have been completely free.
As a result of Hector’s death, the amulet of the White Tiger, along with all the titles and powers inherent within it, were passed down to his niece, Angela.
An FBI-agent inspired to take up the crime-fighting lifestyle after a number of personal encounters with the costumed-identity of her uncle’s defense attorney, the second White Tiger’s time in the mantle would see her chosen to serve as both a vessell of The Hand and a double-agent for their more fundamentalist followers during Daredevil’s ‘Shadowland’-era control of the organization.
When Angela eventually finds herself behind bars thanks to The Hand’s corrupting influence, the role of the White Tiger is subsequently inherited by Hector’s youner sister – her aunt – Ava.
However, given her role as both one of Marvel’s current ‘teenage heroes’ and her coming in last on the amulet’s roster, it’s likely that Ava will only play an ancilliary role, if any, to her relatives’ more expansive and Daredevil-related tales.
As of writing, Daredevil: Born Again does not have an official premiere date, though a recent filing made by Disney with the United States Copyright Office suggests that the series is aiming for release sometime in 2025.