Before the latest Marvel movie in the timeline, Deadpool & Wolverine, brought back characters from several Marvel franchises, Spider-Man: No Way Home was the first in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to unite characters from multiple cinematic universes. It brought together three different big-screen versions of Spider-Man, and it almost included a reference to another Marvel movie that wouldn’t have been out of place if it had come from Deadpool.
Spider-Man: No Way Home included the surprise return of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoch in a brief scene, confirming the actor was officially reprising his role in the MCU as Daredevil. At the Tampa Bay Comic Con (via Popverse), Cox says there was a line that was shot, but never used, that saw Jon Favreau, who played Foggy Nelson in Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, make reference to the former role. Cox explained…
In Spider-Man, I got to do a scene with Jon Favreau who I love. He also plays Foggy in that film [Daredevil 2003]. I’m not sure if it made it into the movie in the end, but we tried to get a pun in, like a little Easter egg, where I ask him a question, and Jon’s character Happy says, ‘Yeah, I’m a little foggy on that right now.’ I don’t know if it made it into the movie, I can’t remember, but we played with it on the day, hoping people would pick up on it.
Unfortunately, the line did not make it into the final film. In the flick, Cox and Favreau's characters speak briefly about potential legal issues that Happy Hogan could be in, and Hogan tries to talk his way out of responsibility. I can easily see an alternate take where Hogan says he is "foggy" on the subject, and I kind of wish it had made the final version.
To be fair, I had nearly forgotten Jon Favreau was in Daredevil, and it's been a long time since I've seen Affleck's version. A lot of people probably would have missed the joke, which may be why the scene wasn’t used. Still, it’s just the sort of joke that Daredevil & Wolverine could have also used in its wild narrative, which also involves Happy.
In fact, Jon Favreau appears briefly in Deadpool & Wolverine as Happy Hogan, the same role he played in No Way Home. While a “Foggy” joke wouldn’t have had much context in that moment, later in the film Deadpool meets Jennifer Garner’s Electra and they make fun of the Daredevil movie and its ill-fated sequel. Some sort of reference to Favreau having appeared earlier in the movie certainly wouldn’t have been out of place.
Considering Deadpool & Wolverine included Channing Tatum as Gambit, a reference to a movie that never existed, a Foggy Nelson joke with Favreau certainly wouldn’t have been too obscure for the new Marvel movie. But who knows? With Charlie Cox’s role in the MCU only increasing with Daredevil: Born Again premiering next year, there might even be a chance for the new Foggy Nelson and the old Foggy Nelson to meet in some future MCU project. Certainly, that moment would not go by without a knowing reference.
