Does She-Hulk Confirm Whether The Netflix Shows Are Canon Or Not?
This article includes spoilers for the latest episode of "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law."
It's a brave new world in the Marvel Cinematic Universe these days. "Spider-Man: No Way Home" wasn't just a regular ol' trilogy-capper, but an extravaganza that wrangled together two previous versions of the title character from other continuities for a crossover to end all crossovers. "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" couldn't just be a straightforward sequel to a solid, well-received first film — it mashed together other universes partly so it could include dramatic, headline-grabbing cameos that further pushed the limits of what was ever considered possible in the MCU. And now, with the franchise's migration to Disney+ streaming, we're fully in uncharted waters. It seems as if the defunct Marvel/Netflix universe of superhero shows has received new life ... or, at least, the characters who appeared in those shows have.
It's the question that has followed the MCU ever since Marvel went out of its way to bring back original actors like Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in "No Way Home" and Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in "Hawkeye." Are the Netflix shows, which only ever existed in a weirdly one-sided relationship with the rest of the MCU on the big screen, officially canon?
"She-Hulk" became the latest streaming series to attempt to bridge that gap, as its latest episode features Cox reprising his role as the blind lawyer by day and kickass vigilante by night. But did this episode actually take the definitive step of confirming that all three seasons of "Daredevil" truly happened in this continuity? The answer, as has been the case thus far, remains complicated.
Playing coy
If he looks like Daredevil, talks like Daredevil, and beats a bunch of goons (not henchmen!) to a bloody pulp in another hallway, well, then the Daredevil who shows up in the latest episode of "She-Hulk" definitely has to be the exact same Daredevil as the one we saw in the Netflix series ... right?
Fans who've found themselves inordinately preoccupied with these concerns know the drill by now. D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk received a similar amount of attention ahead of his (re)appearance in the Disney+ "Hawkeye" series late last year. Marvel was careful to neither confirm nor deny whether this was actually the same exact version of the character who decapitated underlings with car doors, though the actor himself freely acknowledged the more family-friendly tone this time around. But the question nonetheless remained: Did all those hours of story in the Netflix series actually happen, as far as the MCU is concerned?
Viewers won't be surprised to find out that "She-Hulk" takes a very familiar approach. This version of Matt Murdock has obviously been around for a while, operating a private practice in Hell's Kitchen and having done this kind of thing (read: beat up bad guys with his bare fists) countless times before. And yet, similar to Fisk, Murdock never once alludes to specific events that only could've happened in the Netflix show. Marvel seems content to keep things vague for the time being, neither alienating the Netflix viewers who fell in love with the character by rebooting the hero from scratch nor requiring casual fans who never watched "Daredevil" or "The Defenders" to have to do extra homework to understand his appearance in "She-Hulk."
It's a fine line that the MCU continues to walk and, though maybe not entirely satisfying, it seems to be paying off.