Charlie Cox Didn't Have To Lie About Spider-Man: No Way Home, Would Happily Return As Daredevil
Unlike certain other actors in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," Charlie Cox didn't always have to lie about his return as a Marvel character from another movie or TV show outside the mainline MCU. Cox only had one scene to reprise his role as Matthew Murdock from Netflix's "Daredevil" series, and apparently, he was as much in the dark as the rest of us, at least for a while, about Marvel's plans to bring him back.
"Daredevil" premiered in April 2015 and was Netflix's first Marvel show. It lasted three seasons, one more than any of the other street-level Defenders (Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist), but Netflix canceled the show in November 2018. After that, Cox's future as the Man Without Fear seemed uncertain, and it was a full three years before he made his reemergence as Murdock in "No Way Home."
In an interview with Supernova, Cox explained that he genuinely thought his time as Daredevil was done. Apparently, Marvel brought him in at a late stage to film his one "No Way Home" scene, which enabled the actor to maintain plausible deniability, since he really didn't know at first that they were planning to introduce him into the MCU (along with his costar, Vincent D'Onofrio, who showed up on Disney+ as Kingpin in "Hawkeye.") Cox said:
"For years, I have been asked questions about returning as Daredevil, and the genuine truth was I 100% assumed that was gone, that ship had just sailed. I didn't hear from any of the folks at Marvel for a couple of years. It does now look like I was lying for a long time, I actually wasn't, I was only lying for a little bit of time. You still don't want to spoil it for people."
Cox on Daredevil's Future in the MCU
When Netflix scuttled its Marvel shows (not just "Daredevil," but the rest of the Defenders and their solo series, as well), we heard that Marvel Studios would have to wait at least two years before resurrecting any of those characters on Disney+, if it were so inclined. That two-year window has now passed, and Cox, for one, hopes to continue playing Daredevil far beyond his "No Way Home" cameo. He explained further to Supernova:
"I hope, I don't want to sound greedy, but I hope I get to do loads more. I hope I get to be involved way, way more for many years. I hope it never ends. I hope it gets to the point where people are like, 'You are too old to be playing this part.'
"I don't know what their plans are, but yes, my hope is that I get to do as much as I'm allowed to do, and to be involved. And it'd be really fun, the one thing that being in the MCU allows that we couldn't really do with the Netflix stuff, is that I can now interact with other MCU characters. So, that would be really cool. Crossovers is the thing I would like to do next. I don't know what that looks like, and I don't know what they're planning and all that kind of stuff. But there are some really interesting stories there that I'd love for the character to explore."
Will there ever be a "Daredevil" movie starring Charlie Cox? We'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, "Spider-Man: No Way Home" is currently gaining on "Avatar" at the domestic box office, and you can still see Cox having epic hallway fights as Daredevil in the three seasons of his show on Netflix.