One actor has directly confirmed that they won’t be returning in an upcoming MCU project, which has sparked concerns among the fanbase as to what direction the show will be taking.

Royce Johnson, the actor who played Detective Brett Mahoney in Netflix’s Daredevil, has confirmed on Instagram that he won’t be returning for the new season of the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again.

This info comes from a Reddit post over on the r/Daredevil subreddit, after one user shared a conversation Johnson had with one of his fans online.

Considering Brett Mahoney was an instrumental character in the original Daredevil series and one of Matt Murdock’s only ties to the police force, fans are concerned that the character’s omission from Daredevil: Born Again might mean that the “intimate dynamic” between Matt and the police is being omitted from the new show.

“That sucks,” commented user bigchungo6mungo, “He was really charismatic in the OG series and fun to watch.

“I know the director wants to do less of the ‘talking in a room’ but surely Daredevil gets close to one of the cops in the show… why not bring back Brett in that case,” replied user kvng_st.

“He was amazing… Unless there’s absolutely no intimate dynamic between the police and Daredevil, which is even more concerning.”

However, fans aren’t entirely convinced that Johnson is telling the truth, mostly because of a post on Twitter last year that showed a trailer door on the set of the show featuring the name “Brett”.

This could mean the actor has been recast, but it could also mean that Royce Johnson is attempting to keep his role in the show a secret for a more specific reason.

At least we won’t have too long to wait until we find out for sure, as the first episode of Daredevil: Born Again premieres on Disney+ on 5 March next month.