Marvel brought back Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but fans still aren’t sure if the Murdock who appears in that film is the same one they came to know and love in Daredevil. That’s because it has yet to be confirmed whether Daredevil and the studio’s other Netflix series exist within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately, Vincent D’Onofrio’s appearance as Wilson Fisk in Hawkeye last year didn’t offer any clarity on the matter either.
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This past weekend, it looked like Marvel Studios may have finally cleared up Daredevil’s status within the MCU, much to the delight of comic book fans. Then the studio decided to throw doubt into the mix once again.
Matt Murdock’s Marvel Adventures — Over the weekend, Marvel.com updated the “On Screen Full Report” section of Matt Murdock’s character page with a blurb about his appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The report contains a detailed breakdown of Matt’s adventures in both Daredevil and The Defenders, and the No Way Home section was written to suggest that his appearance in the film takes place some time after the events of Daredevil Season 3’s finale.
MCU fans understandably took the update as confirmation that the Matt Murdock seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home is, indeed, the same one Charlie Cox played in Daredevil. That would, in turn, suggest that the version of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin that shows up in Hawkeye is also the same one introduced in Daredevil.
However, after fans noticed the update and began to post about its implications, the No Way Home section of Matt Murdock’s character page was removed from Marvel.com. Now the character’s report ends with a summary of Daredevil Season 3.
In case that wasn’t confusing enough, Kingpin’s character page on Marvel.com doesn’t make any mention of his role in Hawkeye, but does include an image of D’Onofrio in the series.
An Unsolved Mystery — Marvel’s decision to delete the No Way Home section of Matt Murdock’s character page has made Daredevil’s place within the MCU uncertain again. That also means fans still aren’t sure if the studio plans on continuing Matt Murdock’s character arc from Daredevil, or if it intends to have Cox play a rebooted version of his Marvel hero.
Unfortunately, the uncertainty surrounding Marvel’s plans for Daredevil is something that fans have had to get used to. Ever since the studio chose to start making original TV shows for Disney+, there have been questions about whether Marvel’s pre-Disney+ MCU shows, like Daredevil, Runaways, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., can still be considered canonical. To further confuse matters, the studio hasn’t exactly been forthcoming with answers.
With rumors about a fourth season of Daredevil being in the works right now at Marvel, it’s possible that the studio may simply be planning on formally confirming the show’s canonical status sometime in the coming months. But it’s also possible that Marvel has no intention of addressing these questions anytime soon.
The Inverse Analysis — When it comes to resolving Daredevil’s canonical status, Marvel has a few different options.
For starters, the studio could simply announce whether Daredevil does or does not take place within the MCU. Alternatively, Marvel could decide to take advantage of its expanding multiverse and say that the events of Daredevil did take place within the MCU, but not in the same reality as No Way Home or any of the studio’s other MCU titles.
At this point, it seems like all three of those possibilities are still on the board.
Daredevil is available to stream now on Disney+.
