Ever since his appearance in the insanely popular Spider-Man: No Way Home, Matt Murdock AKA Daredevil has generated quite a lot of hype, finally culminating in his recently announced addition to the mainline story, through an upcoming Disney+ show. Star Amy Rutberg, who plays Marci on the original show, happily shared the announcement with fans:
The rumours were brewing for quite a while — even Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin showed up in Hawkeye, teasing the possibility of adopting the entire range of Netflix Marvel shows into MCU canon. According to Variety, the new show will be spearheaded by Matt Corman and Chris Ord as writers and executive producers.
Before we dive any further though, let’s address the elephant in the room:
Is Netflix’s Daredevil Now Canon?
For years, Netflix was the home for Marvel’s earlier experiments with serialized content, launching Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher across a span of four years and 161 episodes.
With Daredevil now set to join the Disney+ roster of shows such as WandaVision and Loki — both of which have dire stakes in the MCU — how does Kevin Feige plan to handle everything that happens in the show’s original seasons?
In a nutshell, the entire thing is loosely canon. What this means is that while big names like Charlie Cox and D’Onofrio will probably stay on board, we may see a few recasts of minor characters. For all intents and purposes, the MCU simply assumes that Daredevil has been working as a lawyer and crimefighter in New York for a few years.
Since we’ve largely been operating in different universes and timelines for a while, Earth-616’s New York has been primarily unchanged, allowing this to make sense. So let’s call it 99 percent canon and leave a bit of room for Feige to make some plotholes.
“Talk about organized crime in the Marvel universe and you talk about the seedy underbelly of New York City — there is one, primary character that comes to mind,” implied Kevin Feige roughly after the release of Hawkeye in late 2021.
D’Onofrio also follows up here. “He said I want to bring you into the MCU,” he said of Feige, following up with an enthusiastic response.
A New Suit
An interesting after-effect of a TV show being cancelled is the mass sale of props, costumes, and other production items that won’t be required without further shoots. When Netflix-Daredevil was wrapped up a few years ago, several iconic items were sold off, including Charlie Cox’s iconic Daredevil suit.
Therefore, it’s very likely that we’ll be seeing a new costume in the upcoming show, perhaps something a bit more comic-book accurate. Chip Zdarsky’s 2019 Daredevil run has some very nice digs on show. Just take a look at this incredible cover art:
Either way, it’ll be exciting to see what the costume designers cook up next. After Wanda Maximoff’s amazing Scarlet Witch outfits and a host of new multiversal variant looks, they’re certainly putting out some of their best work in Phase 4.
How Does Daredevil Tie Into She-Hulk?
As the only two superpowered attorneys in the world, it’s natural that She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) and Daredevil would get along — the two are passionate about the legal system, and many of their storylines often involve court dramas.
As She-Hulk seems to be set in Los Angeles, this may mean that Daredevil will finally step out of Hell’s Kitchen, perhaps giving us a chance to subtly let go of the Netflix show’s influence and strike up new directions for the character.
In the comics, the two strike up a small, if spirited friendship. This could be deeply expanded on in both shows and maybe lead up to a truly interesting premise if both characters find themselves on the opposite sides of a courtroom.
In She-Hulk #8, Walters finds herself caught up in a case where she represents an older Steve Rogers. Steve is a defendant in a case centred around an incident from his pre-Captain days in 1940s New York, where as a teen living on the streets, he ends up in trouble with local gangsters — one of whom is the case’s plaintiff. Instead of keeping shush when caught sneaking around their hideout, Steve talks back to the crime boss with a gun pointed at him and the plaintiff’s younger brother.
When told that another word from Steve would result in the other kid getting shot, he didn’t back down, resulting in the kid’s death.
Naturally, Walters works hard at the case and that means even reaching out to Matt Murdock for advice, though he never picks up the phone. It’s only when she walks into the courtroom, that she realises her legal opponent is none other than Murdock himself.
We’ve seen plenty of crossover battles in MCU history, but never a straight-up legal one, which has possibilities to cause all sorts of Civil-War-Style conflict in the future. Fingers crossed!
While Disney+’s Daredevil has no confirmed release date, fans estimate it to be out in late 2023 or early 2024.
(Featured Image Credits: Disney, Marvel Studios)
