Daredevil’s White Tiger Could Be One Marvel Character’s Ticket Back Into the MCU

This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again through episode 7.

Hector Ayala’s White Tiger has been a welcome, if brief, addition to the ever-expanding canon that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, providing different kinds of vigilante perspectives to the street-level heroes of Daredevil: Born Again.

“The show deals with themes of vigilantism and taking justice into your own hands in an oppressive world, and White Tiger exists to kind of carry out that argument,” Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Television, And Animation Brad Winderbaum told Den of Geek at the Daredevil junket prior to the series premiere.

Following the events of episode three, Hector Ayala is dead after being shot by an unknown assailant we can only assume was a corrupt police officer. But his inquisitive spirit and thirst for justice seems to live on in his niece; Angela Del Toro, potentially our next White Tiger. But we must first understand who the White Tiger is, and what the character’s presence could indicate about the future of the MCU … including the potential return of the most disrespected Defender. Allow us (along with Winderbaum and Daredevil: Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane) to explain.

Not only have rich narrative choices enhanced this story concerning White Tiger, but there are world-expanding implications that can arise merely from the existence of his source of power, the “White Tiger Amulet,” which gives the wearer enhanced speed, agility, strength, senses, durability, healing, and other mystical properties when the time calls for it. 

The origin of the mystic tiger amulet starts in the mystic city known as K’un-Lun. It is one of the three pieces of a tiger god statue that was passed around until it found its way hidden in a dojo, given to and used by a group of three fighters from their master, who was felled by an enemy attack. Following this, they went by the name “Sons of the Tiger” and had their own adventures for a little bit, as depicted in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu Vol. 1, until they broke up and abandoned the amulets in an alley, which would then find its way into Hector Ayala’s possession. 

Now if that name K’un-Lun sounds familiar to you, it should. The city is the home to Danny Rand, a.k.a. the Iron Fist and where he got his abilities and title as The Iron Fist: Protector of K’un-Lun. And with former Iron Fist actor Finn Jones recently sharing his desire to reprise the role, it definitely opens up a conversation to be had about the mystic side of the MCU getting a deeper exploration. We’ve already witnessed tidbits of mysticism in things like Agatha All Along, Werewolf by Night, a small mention of Kit Harington’s The Black Knight in Eternals, and of course Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel with her mystic ancestral bangles of other-worldly power. This lean towards other avenues and genres within their comics catalog brings some much appreciated variety to the mostly sci-fi and espionage-inspired world that is the MCU currently. 

And this is not the only avenue Ms. Marvel seems to be spearheading, with her being on the forefront of Marvel’s push towards their young heroes in film and television as well. As we see with her upfront team recruitment offer to Kate Bishop in the post-credit scene of The Marvels, and episode 5 of Daredevil: Born Again revealing Kamala Khan’s current West Coast whereabouts, where she’s presumably further recruiting young heroes .

It’s looking like the MCU might be aiming to put together a Young Avengers and Champions amalgamation squad with them already having their one and only Champion firmly in the universe in Kamala Khan’s Ms. Marvel, and revealing the majority of the potential young Avengers in recent releases. We see this with appearances of Young Avengers members, like Wiccan and Speed in Agatha All Along, Isaiah Bradley’s nephew Elijah Bradley briefly in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (yet to have a suited appearance as Patriot but still having laid the groundwork for it to happen), Kate Bishop as the co-star in the Hawkeye series, and the portal-hopping powerhouse America Chavez as the co-star of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And a potential addition to this roster, Angela Del Toro, a.k.a. White Tiger, who has her own experience with young teams based out of the West Coast, as shown in her prominent role in the Avengers Academy.

It’s clear that Daredevil: Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane and executive producer Brad Winderbaum understand and are aware of these characters’ potential in the MCU.

“Yeah, there’s people you want to see together, you know!” Scardapane says. 

“Every decision is gonna be based on the story we’re telling and the characters, and what’s driving them, and what obstacles they face,” Winderbaum adds. “Yes they live and breathe in the same world with these other characters, and collisions can happen, but we’re not trying to do anything arbitrarily. We’re gonna bring people in when it’s the right story reason to do it.”

If this is any indication of the future for the avenues, characters, and storylines of the MCU’s approach then we are in for quite a treat these upcoming phases.

New episodes of Daredevil: Born Again premiere Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+, culminating with the finale on April 15. 

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