Daredevil is the Schrödinger's cat of the MCU. The series began on Netflix, but now lives on Disney+. Its canonical status is questionable, but while Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist now rest in the dustbin of streaming archives, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Echo. Now, he’s gearing up for a new Disney+ original series, Daredevil: Born Again, that will be firmly entrenched in the canon.
But this much-anticipated series wasn’t always a sure thing. In fact, even the star once thought it was a hopeless endeavor. Everything is falling into place now, but its long journey is a reminder of how slowly TV projects move, especially at Marvel.
In a conversation with People, Charlie Cox revealed that after Daredevil was canceled, he only had to wait a few years before he and co-star Vincent D’Onofrio got a call from Marvel bigshot Kevin Feige. “It wasn't until midway through 2020 that we got a phone call from [President of Marvel Studios] Kevin [Feige] saying that they were interested in bringing the characters back,” Cox said.
At that point, the discussion wasn’t about relaunching the show, but just about bringing Daredevil and D’Onofrio’s Kingpin into the MCU. But then the phone stopped ringing. Cox and D’Onofrio moved on, and according to Cox, he completely “let go.” “Occasionally Vincent and I would chat and he would say things like, 'Oh, they're going to call. I think they're going to us, but they're going to call us,'" he said. "And I would get off the phone and be like, the guy's delusional! He's got to let it go. It's going to be 10 years and he's still going. It's over. It's definitely over.”
D’Onofrio was ultimately vindicated; both characters have appeared in the MCU several times, and the actors are now gearing up for the relaunch of their old TV show. Maybe that implies Feige and Marvel are planning years and years in advance, monitoring not only the franchise’s current phase but also its long-term movements (and the legal morass characters like Daredevil can find themselves in, as Netflix retained the rights for quite some time). Or maybe Marvel is just figuring things out as it goes.
Either way, fans should be optimistic — even if there are no updates for years, it doesn’t mean a series is dead. If Matt Murdock can fully re-enter the MCU after all this time, then anything is possible... even that Channing Tatum Gambit movie.
