Late Sunday night Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that Charlie Cox will be back as Daredevil, this time in the MCU. When asked if Marvel Studios is planning a new Daredevil project and who would play the character, Feige had this to say: “If you were to see Daredevil in upcoming things, Charlie Cox, yes, would be the actor playing Daredevil. Where we see that, how we see that, when we see that, remains to be seen.” It’s been rumored for close to a year now that Charlie Cox would be back as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home, as Peter Parker’s lawyer. It’s also been rumored that Cox will be back as Daredevil in the Hawkeye spin-off series Echo.
Time will tell if either of these are true, but I have a feeling that they will become true in the near future. Vincent D'Onofrio is rumored to be reprising his Daredevil role of Kingpin in Hawkeye, and might even appear in this week’s fourth episode. Deborah Ann Woll who played Karen Paige on Daredevil was spotted in LA alongside Kirsten Dunst (MJ in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy) during reshoots for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Who knows what is true and what isn’t, but one thing’s for sure… Charlie Cox is officially back as Daredevil and that is extremely exciting. There are a lot of ways that he could appear, and I’ll breakdown my main theories.
Image via: Screen Rant
Fans of Hawkeye, who’ve seen Daredevil, might’ve noticed a similarity between Echo and the Man Without Fear; Daredevil is blind and Echo is deaf. The two have quite the relationship in the comics, and would make for a great way to bring back Charlie Cox, as Echo’s mentor.
Maya Lopez was a young girl when her father Willie was killed by the Kingpin. After Willie died, he left a last dying wish: that the Kingpin raises Maya. Kingpin honors his dying wish, caring for her as his own daughter. Believed to be mentally disabled, Maya is sent to an expensive school for people with learning disabilities. There, she manages to completely replicate a song on the piano. She is subsequently sent to another expensive school for prodigies, and would soon be a gifted woman. Years later Maya is sent by the Kingpin to prove Matt Murdock's weakness, telling her that Matt believes Fisk is a bad person and that she is the only way to prove him wrong. As Maya believes Fisk, it would not appear to be a lie when she tells Matt.
Image via: Marvel
Murdock and Maya soon fall in love. She later takes on the "Echo" moniker to hunt down Daredevil. Maya proves more than a match for Daredevil, having watched videos of Daredevil and Bullseye fighting. After several failed attempts, noticing that Daredevil can easily move through the dark, Maya easily figures out Daredevil's weakness and exploits this by having a fight in a place where Daredevil's heightened senses are useless. Maya easily takes down Daredevil and nearly kills the vigilante, refusing only when she finds out Matt and Daredevil are one and the same. Matt manages to correct the Kingpin's lies. In revenge, Maya confronts and shoots Fisk in the face, blinding Fisk and starting the chain of events that lead to the man's eventual downfall (Kingpin later partially recovered eyesight through reconstructive eye surgery).
After realizing the horror of her actions and the lies with which she has grown up, Maya flees the United States to do some soul-searching. When she comes back, she tries reuniting with Murdock, only to find out Matt is now with a blind woman and that the Kingpin is still alive. Leaving Matt, Maya visits the Kingpin in prison who tells her that she doesn't get blamed for what she did, and (that despite all that had happened) the Kingpin still loves her like a daughter. Unsatisfied and still needing peace, Maya turns to the Chief (her father's old friend) for wisdom. The Chief sends Maya on a vision quest to calm her soul. Soon enough, Maya makes peace with her past and is back doing performance art.
To me the most logical way for Daredevil to return is in Echo and seeing him mentor Maya to make her an even better fighter by learning how to utilize her disability to make it her strength, even more. We’ve seen on the show that she’s able to do things that most people who are deaf aren’t able to do, so who knows, maybe in the MCU they’ve already met and their paths cross again. She’s very much like Elektra and her relationship with Daredevil always seemed very similar to me in many ways.
Image via: John Campea & His Unknown Source
Thanks to Twitter clown John Campea, we might’ve already seen a leaked image of Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Campea posted this picture on Twitter and within minutes took it down as Marvel sources began to call him to tell him to delete it. Some even said to him, “how did you get this?” So this is more than likely an actual photo. Seeing Murdock being Peter’s lawyer would be really neat, especially with him maybe mentioning to Peter that he too is a superhero and gives him some motivational words of wisdom. Daredevil and Spider-Man have a great relationship in the comics, and seeing it take shape in the new Spider-Man movie will be a dream come true.
Image via: Marvel
While the two have butted heads occasionally about Spider-Man not doing something the way Daredevil wanted, or the two arguing about whose NYC turf is whose, the two over time have forged one of my favorite relationships in comics. The way that Spider-Man looks up to Daredevil/Matt as, not a father like Tony Stark, but as a brother and vise versa, is just done so perfectly. The new Daredevil comic book run from last year had a perfect arch between the two. It saw Spider-Man being riddled with guilt and depression after he accidentally murdered a henchmen that he was fighting. He seeked Daredevil for closure and the two had a phenomenal chat about what it means to be a superhero, and how sometimes, even when you cross the line, it’s ok.
Peter and Murdock come from different backgrounds, but share a commonality: they both lost their parents at a young age. They do however share a deep love of their city and a sense of civic responsibility. That has led them to become close allies and friends as well. They’re actually one of the closest superhero friendships in comics. At one point Peter even wore Daredevil's costume and swung into the same courtroom as Matt, as a way to shut down public suspicion of Matt's secret identity. With the world now believing that Peter Parker/Spider-Man killed Mysterio, and at the end of the day he was kind of at fault, I assume we’ll get a great conversation between the two multiple times that leads to their strong friendship being forged.
Image via: The Direct
The trailer for this week’s episode of Hawkeye featured a character with some sort of green goggles. Well, Yelena Belova (played by Florence Pugh and last seen in Black Widow) has worn similar goggles in the comics before, most notably in the 90s during a specific Black Widow storyline. It followed Yelena Belova trying to save Natasha Romanoff and dozens of other women at the Cutting Corporation, which was ran by Norman Osborn. Yelena ends up crossing paths with Matt Murdock, and the two team up to rescue Romanoff. After rescuing her and others, Yelena is recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. where she joins the New Avengers. As seen in the Black Widow end credits scene, Yelena has a bone to pick with Clint Barton, who she believes is to blame for her sister’s death.
Yelena’s smart, I would assume that she wouldn’t go off on her own to take down Hawkeye, and Daredevil happens to be the one Marvel superhero, after Captain America, who has a strong moral code. If Matt were to be told/given evidence that an Avenger killed another Avenger… he’d set out to seek justice, especially when that hero lives in his own city. We’ve also seen in Hawkeye how Natasha’s death has really effected Clint, so we’ll definitely see more of that in the near future on this show. If Daredevil is involved that would be pretty amazing, but I doubt it. With Echo and Yelena seeming so similar in their fighting styles and intent, it’s possible that the two could form a bond and team up, maybe even with Daredevil mentoring them.
Who knows for sure when we’ll actually see Charlie Cox as Daredevil again, but the possibilities are endless and there is so much that Feige and all involved at Marvel Studios could do here.