This Surprise Spider-Man: No Way Home Character Almost Had More Than A Cameo
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" wowed Marvel fans with all the surprises director Jon Watts crammed into the Web-Slinger's third solo outing. The film features a fun ensemble cast alongside Tom Holland's Peter Parker as he works with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to catch Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), the Lizard (Rhys Ifans), and Electro (Jamie Foxx). That's without mentioning the crowd-pleasing finale which sees the hero team-up with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's respective Spider-Men. It also officially brings another fan-favorite into the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Daredevil.
Charlie Cox reprises his role as Matt Murdock from Netflix's "Daredevil" series, and he briefly shows up at the beginning of the film to help Peter deal with his legal issues in the aftermath of Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) outing his identity to the world. His role in the film is small, and obviously, most fans are keen to know where else the Man Without Fear will show up next. The screenwriters behind "No Way Home" recently revealed that they originally wanted more Matt Murdock in the film, and explained why it didn't end up happening.
Matt Murdock could have had a bigger role in No Way Home
Seeing Charlie Cox return to play Matt Murdock again is just one of many punch-the-air moments for longtime Marvel fans, although it's somewhat overshadowed by the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield later on in the film. Screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers recently appeared on "The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith" podcast where they opened up about the difficulties of juggling the return of multiple fan-favorite characters. Sommers pointed out, "The question is, what is there room for? I could watch any of these characters we brought in just do a whole other movie by themselves."
He also explained that when they got the green light to use Matt Murdock, they had some big ideas for the blind lawyer. "Once we knew we were gonna have Matt Murdock, it's like, 'He could do this, he could do that, that would be so cool, wouldn't that be great?'" Sommers said. However, this is a "Spider-Man" movie, and the writers had to make sure the spotlight remained on the Web-Head. And with so many other guest-stars throughout the film, it appears that there just wasn't room to give Murdock a more substantial role. As Sommers explained, "We didn't want to do things that would distract from the story of our Peter and our Spider-Man."
McKenna and Sommers didn't reveal whether Murdock would've been a part of the action-packed ending, or if he suited up in his Netflix costume. Either way, it appears that Marvel may have other plans for the Hornhead in the future.