The cast of Daredevil: Born Again is rounding out fairly quickly as business in Hollywood gets close to wrapping up for 2022. Over the past week, four major additions have been made to the cast. One of the latest additions to the cast was 24 and House of Cards alumn Sandrine Holt, who was cast to play a South Asian character in the series. Trade reports of her casting indicated she may be a possible love interest for one of the series leads (Charlie Cox or Vincent D’Onofrio) and while that may be the case, her character will be formidable in the series and Holt’s contract seems to include options for her to appear in other MCU projects. While the internet went wild theorizing who Holt might be, most of the guesses were drawn from a pretty shallow pool of characters who are well associated with Daredevil or Kingpin. However, given the scope of Daredevil: Born Again, it’s possible that Holt might be playing someone from outside Hell’s Kitchen. In fact, she might be playing someone who’s as far from Hell’s Kitchen as it gets.
Over the course of its 18-episode season, Daredevil: Born Again is rumored to eventually find Wilson Fisk running for Mayor of New York City. That’s a pretty tall order for a guy who was working out of a garage and running the Tracksuit Mafia before being shot in the face in the season finale of Hawkeye. Part of Fisk’s arc to becoming Mayor of NYC may take place in Echo, which is rumored to feature another gang known as the Black Knife Cartel, but fans should expect most of that arc to take place in Born Again. Whatever the case with Fisk, he certainly can’t be running for Mayor while most of income can be traced to organized crime. Even the Kingpin might need to clean some of that money to look legit and in the MCU, there’s one place where that kind of business gets done on the daily: Madripoor.
First visited in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Madripoor is a criminal safehaven located in Southeast Asia where, for the most part, anything goes. Run by Sharon Carter, aka the Power Broker, Madripoor has plenty of crime, organized and otherwise, and was shown to be big into cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency has become the modern hub for money laundering and in the MCU, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that Madripoor could be the hub for laundering. Should Kingpin be in the market for such a racket, one particular character who is a major player on the island nation in the comics comes to mind quickly.
Jessán Hoan is exactly the kind of criminal Wilson Fisk might find himself turning to in order to clean a boatload of money quickly. A financial genius who once worked at her family’s major international bank, Hoan wound up in Madripoor where she quickly rose up the ranks, ultimately becoming the island’s overlord: the Queenpin of Madripoor. Better known as Tyger Tiger, Hoan is a known associate of Wolverine, or Patch as he calls himself on the island, and owns the Princess Bar that he so loved to frequent. Ruthless and brilliant, Tyger Tiger is just the type of associate Fisk would seek out.
Is Holt Playing Tyger Tiger?
It is certainly one option, but given the lack of information on the character, it’s impossible to tell. Given there’s only one South Asian location that’s currently established within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that Holt is playing a South Asian character, there’s at least one potential link to Tyger Tiger. The character is also described as “confident”, “knowledgable” and willing to say what’s on her mind. Those descriptors all certainly match the comic’s presentation of Tyger Tiger. While there’s no comic book history between Tyger Tiger and Kingpin, the MCU isn’t exactly known for keeping to the pages of the comics these days. Madripoor exists. It’s the kind of place a guy like Fisk would certainly know about and depending on how they wish to film it, Fisk might not even have to visit The Princess Bar: Tyger Tiger could visit him in NYC. A return trip to Madripoor and a look around the Princess Bar would be pretty fantastic, though, and could easily be done while filming in New York City.
As is always the case when guessing at the identity of an unknown character, it’s more likely Holt is anyone else other than Tyger Tiger; however, Tyger Tiger is one intriguing option for Sandrine Holt, who is likely to return to the MCU down the line.
Who else could Holt be playing? We’d love to hear your ideas on Twitter.
