The following contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
There were a lot of rumors surrounding Spider-Man: No Way Home. Following the reveal that villains from previous Spider-Man franchise movies would be appearing in the new Tom Holland-led adventure, rumors began to circulate that everybody from previous Spider-Man actors to previous Spider-Man romantic interests would also be appearing. As we know now, some of those rumors were true, and others were not, but one specific cameo had apparently been in the works for a long time, as Charlie Cox knew he would be playing Matt Murdock again years ago.
Among the many Spider-Man: No Way Home rumors that were part of the lead up to the film was one that claimed that Peter Parker would get a lawyer to help him deal with the Mysterio’s deathbed accusation that Spider-Man killed him. That lawyer would be Matt Murdock, with Charlie Cox reprising his role from the Netflix Daredevil series. It’s only been about a year since we first heard this rumor, but apparently Cox’s appearance has been in the works for much longer than that according to fellow Defender Jessica Henwick.
Jessica Henwick recently spoke with THR about her decision to appear in The Matrix: Resurrections rather than in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, as she was under consideration to play the role of Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing. Henwick says part of the reason she didn’t choose the Marvel movie was because she still has hope she’ll be able to return to the MCU as Colleen Wing from Netflix's Iron Fist. Though she admits that’s now a long shot as Charlie Cox has been aware of his return for some time, and nobody has suggested her return yet. According to Henwick...
If I did [Shang-Chi], I would effectively be putting Colleen to bed. It wasn’t the main factor, but it definitely came up in conversation. I love Colleen. She changed my life. Of course, if I was given the opportunity to revisit her, I would, but I just don’t know how likely that is. Charlie [Cox] knew about that opportunity years ago. He already knew it was happening. I think I would have heard by now if there were any plans with Colleen.
So while Charlie Cox only recently made his big screen MCU debut, and the rumor was only around for the last year, it seems that the wheels were put in motion even longer ago than that, and not only that, but Jessica Henwick, and one assumes others, knew about it.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, we’ll likely hear more details about how this all came about in the near future. It’s certainly possible plans for Spider-Man: No Way Home were far enough along some time back that Marvel Studios knew they wanted Charlie Cox to appear as Peter’s lawyer. It’s also possible that it was just decided, following the cancellation of the Netflix series, that if and when Daredevil returned to the MCU the studio wanted Cox in the role, and so he signed a deal without any specific plans of how he would be used.
What the future holds for the other actors who played characters in the Marvel series for Netflix, nobody knows. This certainly opens the door for the return of anybody, and it’s not an understatement to say that Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing was the highlight of Iron Fist. Not only would she like to return, there are likely a lot of fans who would love to see her.
