Daredevil's Next MCU Appearance Is Coming Sooner Than You Think
Marvel Comics' "Man Without Fear" — Daredevil — has walked a long and winding path over the years, first with Ben Affleck in a 2003 standalone movie for the former 20th Century Fox, and then in the Netflix series starring Charlie Cox. Luckily for fans of Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock, the revered character eventually found his way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it appears that he's going to be featured quite often moving forward.
Cox, of course, played the blind attorney who moonlights as a masked, ninja-skilled vigilante for three seasons of Netflix's "Daredevil" from 2015 to 2018, and in the interim, he joined up with three fellow Marvel superheroes — Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) — for the one-off series "The Defenders" in 2017. But after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019 and Marvel Studios began producing their own television series, fans knew it was only a matter of time before the character became an integral part of the MCU.
Much to "Daredevil" aficionados' delight, Murdock turned up in a cameo appearance in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which finally opened the door to the character's participation in the MCU. Unsurprisingly, it was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con in July (via The Verge) that a "Daredevil" series is on the way for Disney+, with Vincent D'Onofrio joining Cox in the series after his villainous Kingpin made a surprise appearance in "Hawkeye" in 2021.
Unfortunately, it was also revealed that "Daredevil: Born Again" won't be debuting on Disney+ until the spring of 2024. However, since Murdock is an attorney, he will get a chance to make his case on another Disney+ series that is right around the corner.
She-Hulk's creators were shocked to land Daredevil for the series
Following the trailer debut of "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" at San Diego Comic-Con, executive producer and head writer Jessica Gao was able to chat about the surprise appearance of Daredevil in the series, and officially confirmed Cox's participation. Gao admitted in an interview with Collider that she was taken aback by the opportunity to use Daredevil in the series, presumably because production on the series began before the character appeared in "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
"I don't think we ever, in a million years, thought that we would be allowed to use them, because we didn't know what the status was of the character," Gai said. "And then, I can't remember how, we got wind that he was coming back and that it was Charlie Cox, and we were like, 'Wait, does that mean we can use him? Are we allowed?' And when they told us yeah, I mean, we couldn't believe it, we thought we were being pranked."
Gao and her fellow creatives were so convinced that the opportunity to use Daredevil was going to go away that they proceeded to write the character into the "She-Hulk" script with caution. "[We were thinking], like, 'Okay, any moment now they're going to tell us we can't use them. They made a mistake. They actually don't have the rights.' But it just kept [becoming] more and more real," Gao told Collider. "And it was so hard to keep that secret!"
Only time will tell how much Daredevil will figure into the nine-episode "She-Hulk" storyline. The trailer only shows a quick glimpse of Daredevil in his costume, but since the character is a lawyer by trade, it wouldn't be a shock to also see Murdock appear alongside Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) in a legal setting.
Also starring Mark Ruffalo, Tim Roth, Jameela Jamil, and Benedict Wong, "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" debuts on Disney+ on August 17.