Charlie Cox just closed out another appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Daredevil, and his approval rating as Matt Murdock remains high amongst fans. Granted, Matt is looking a little different than the Netflix days, as he’s rocking a new yellow costume and even cracking jokes he wouldn’t have dared to make amidst the chaos in Hell’s Kitchen. The character’s shown a lot of change in his MCU, and I think I’m not the only one who isn’t a little bit curious as to why.
Every change we’ve seen for Matt Murdock’s character so far seems to have been done with a purpose. Between She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Spider-Man: No Way Home, I have to wonder if these changes are happening because the MCU is hoping to use Daredevil for more Marvel movie appearances in the near future. If you start to look at the things changing about the hero, that definitely feels like that could be why it’s happening.
Daredevil Is Noticeably More Super Than He Was On The Netflix Series
Daredevil’s fight with She-Hulk in the Disney+ series was standard fare for the character at first, but when he scaled down that parking garage with a series of flips and twists? That was on another level. That wasn’t something that was ever shown in the Netflix series, and with good reason. The former Netflixverse of heroes tried to keep things grounded, so watching Daredevil casually flip his way down a building wasn’t par for the course.
Another thing we saw during She-Hulk was Daredevil perform those physics-defying baton throws. Those maneuvers don’t jive with reality, but in a world like the MCU where there's plenty of things happening that don’t make sense, it’s super easy to believe Matt Murdock can do this no problem. It’s also something he’s done in the comics way before he ever had a live-action series, so it’s not like this is breaking the character in any way.
Let’s also not forget that Daredevil wasn’t the only character from the franchise we've seen level up in the past year. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin returned in Hawkeye, and he was noticeably more durable than the average human might be. He took an enormous amount of punishment in his fight sequences, and despite taking shots that would kill any lesser human, he kept on charging.
The clear messaging, I feel, is that Kevin Feige and other Marvel decision makers felt that Daredevil and its characters needed to be stronger when they arrived in the MCU. If the point of this was merely to make their action sequences more entertaining for when Daredevil: Born Again premieres, then mission accomplished.
I tend to believe, however, that these decisions are made specifically so that fans can finally see team-ups they’ve waited for a long time. There are Marvel fans who waited decades to see Spider-Man and Daredevil share a screen, but if you tried to do that with the Daredevil from the Netflix series, it just wouldn’t work. This Daredevil is capable of keeping up with other big screen heroes, even if he isn’t quite as powerful, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Marvel Didn’t Have To Change Daredevil For The Sake Sake Of The Fans
Disney has done a good job revamping Daredevil thus far, but I think it’s worth noting the risk it took in doing so. The saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” has staying power for a reason. The original Daredevil series was the gold standard for Marvel television in its time, and even now, I’d personally put it up against most every Disney+ Marvel show and say it’s the superior product. It takes a lot for fans to continually campaign for a show’s return years after its cancellation. It takes a lot more for people to actually support and be interested in a revival after that much time passed, which really speaks to the quality of the original series.
Let’s also just go back to a time before we didn’t know for sure that Charlie Cox was returning as Daredevil and it was just a rumor. There was fierce debate and discussion on whether or not the character should be rebooted, or if Marvel should simply just continue the show and establish it’s set in a separate universe within the multiverse. There were actual takes that would sooner see that happen than Daredevil join one of the most prolific cinematic universes of all time, which is kind of bonkers.
So just to reiterate, Daredevil probably wasn’t changed because there was a sea of fans requesting that the character get more powers or a new suit. There were definitely issues people had with the Netflixverse of Marvel shows, but Daredevil was the shining beacon out of all of them that could’ve gotten a continuation and no one would’ve batted an eye. In fact, it’s kind of a bummer we aren’t, which means we won’t see that cliffhanger of Bullseye’s reconstruction play out unless Marvel re-imagines it.
Daredevil Is Making Friends In The MCU
Luckily, Daredevil doesn’t need Bullseye, Foggy Nelson or even Karen Page at this point. He’s already made solid friends with She-Hulk, and we could speculate he’s probably ran into Spider-Man even if he has no recollection of helping Peter Parker with his legal case. These friendships and connections wouldn’t be necessary if he was just going to remain in his own little bubble in Hell’s Kitchen, so what’s ahead for the character?
Admittedly, it could be anything from a movie appearance to another television show or miniseries. I’m choosing to believe his inclusion in Spider-Man: No Way Home, however, was a primer for fans to say that Daredevil has a place in Marvel movies, and at some point he’ll be kicking ass in those movies. Hell, he could even find himself in the next Avengers lineup, as there’s no telling what heroes will or won’t be available by the time The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars roll around. I know I’d like to see him on the big screen though, so consider me one of the fans pleased if it happens.
Perhaps Daredevil will appear in one of the upcoming Marvel movies, but for now, anyone can check out his original live-action series on Disney+. Daredevil: Born Again is still in development, but hopefully we’ll have some more details on that upcoming show soon.
