Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock is one of the most beloved Marvel characters to hit the screen, which is why fans were so excited when Spider-Man: No Way Home brought Daredevil to the MCU. He had a cameo appearance in the movie, and based on the reaction, it’s clear that fans want Murdock to factor into the future of the MCU. We then saw Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) in Hawkeye, which seemed to settle the question. One way or another, Daredevil will be part of the MCU.
More recent leaks revealed that Marvel is working on a new Daredevil series for Disney Plus. The streaming service already added the Netflix show.
But rumors say that the MCU Daredevil won’t just continue the action from the Netflix show. Marvel might do something unexpected with the character and deliver a lighter story than what we got in the Netflix series. Mind you, some spoilers might follow below.
Is the Netflix Daredevil canon to the MCU?
Daredevil came up often during the No Way Home rumors season, with reports claiming that Marvel wants to reboot the story. Any MCU Daredevil would not follow the events in the Netflix show, and there’s an easy explanation for that: The multiverse.
That’s a big MCU Phase 4 theme, and we’ve learned most of its rules. The MCU’s Daredevil doesn’t have to be the variant we saw in the Netflix series. But the character can share some of the same baggage. Maybe the MCU variant lived a life similar to the Netflix counterpart.
The multiverse also allows Marvel to bring back all the Daredevil characters without worrying about continuity issues. They, too, could be similar versions of the Netflix variants.
All of this is speculation, as we don’t have a clear idea of what Marvel plans or the character. But one report suggests that Marvel could go for a lighter version of Daredevil for the upcoming TV show.
Where does the lighter Daredevil come from?
The Netflix Daredevil show has a TV-MA rating, as it features mature and adult content. That’s not quite the PG-13 rating you’d expect from a Marvel project, especially one that’s available on Disney Plus.
There’s a lot of violence in the series, and the Netflix Daredevil is darker than what you’d expect from the MCU. Maybe that’s why Disney wants a soft reboot for the TV show.
While getting a lighter version of Daredevil might not sit well with some fans, there is precedent for it. In a conversation with Murphy’s Multiverse, Ms. Marvel co-creator and executive producer Sana Amanat tackled the matter.
Amanat was an editor on Mark Waid’s Daredevil comics run and said that Marvel might consider making a lighter version of the character:
I don’t see why not! Mark Waid’s run was pretty seminal. We’ve never seen that kind of story and I love the spin on that and it was such an unexpected take on the character. In the same way, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did something like that in the MCU. Why not? We like to take risks and this is the fun part of exploring multiple stories. So maybe.
Amanat is still speculating on a what-if scenario. However, we’ll point out that anything is possible in the MCU, especially for shows made for streaming.
Also, rumors say that we’ll see Daredevil in other places in the MCU soon, including She-Hulk and Echo. We’ll see exactly how dark or light the character is in those shows, assuming Cox gets to spend more time on the screen than in No Way Home.
More Marvel coverage: For more MCU news, visit our Marvel guide.
