While fans would no doubt love to see Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil, appear in Spider-Man 3 as Peter Parker’s lawyer, it is rather unlikely to happen. Daredevil was last featured in his own series on Netflix, played by Charlie Cox, which was cancelled after three seasons in November 2018, as the Marvel-Netflix deal started to fall apart.
While starting with the promise of being part of the main Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, the Agents of SHIELD.
The final nail in the coffin came when Netflix cancelled all of its Marvel shows, seemingly ending those versions of the characters. However, recent rumors have pointed to that changing, with talk of Daredevil appearing in Spider-Man 3 as Peter Parker’s lawyer. While this is currently highly speculative, there are reasons it makes sense, drawing both on the most recent Spider-Man movie and the comic history of the characters. It isn't impossible to pull off either, though fans shouldn't get their hopes up just yet.
Daredevil Is Rumored For Spider-Man 3
Fans have long wanted to see Daredevil and Spider-Man share the screen, with even the actors involved in the Netflix show having commented on it over the years. Daredevil will appear in Spider-Man 3 is Kevin Smith. While talking with Marc Bernardin on the Fatman Beyond podcast, Smith brought up rumors that the next Spider-Man movie is going to have Peter getting a lawyer. While not a big development in itself, the kicker was that Peter’s lawyer would be Matt Murdock, played by Charlie Cox from the Netflix Daredevil series. After Smith talked about it on his podcast, the rumor gained a lot of traction across the internet.
Smith later clarified on Twitter that he doesn’t have any inside information, just rumors like any other fan might see online. He also never gives a specific source for this information, either on the podcast or on Twitter. There’s been no corroboration since from anyone with inside information at Marvel or Disney. That makes any crossover between Daredevil and Spider-Man unlikely to happen soon.
Why Daredevil In Spider-Man 3 Makes Sense For The Story
While there seems to be little truth to the rumor of Daredevil appearing in Spider-Man 3, there are reasons why it would work and has gained so much traction. Daredevil is one of Spider-Man’s fellow street-level superheroes, but that’s just his night job. Matt Murdock’s day job is as a lawyer, which is what will really be needed here. Having been outed as Spider-Man by J. Jonah Jameson (J. K. Simmons) in Spider-Man: Far From Home's end-credits scene, Peter Parker is going to need a good lawyer to help him fight the rather damning video evidence that he killed Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) and instigated a drone attack. In the eyes of the public, Spider-Man has gone from hero to murderer - Matt Murdock entering the story as an attorney would be a perfect fit to help turn things around. This would be a great crossover opportunity, a smaller thing that fits naturally rather than a big event crossover like the Avengers movies have been.
This also would make the comic history between Daredevil and Spider-Man a part of the MCU. Being street-level New York heroes, Daredevil and Spider-Man frequently appear in each other’s books, sometimes to team up and others just for a quick chat. They also share many ing characters, from Ben Urich, a reporter who was featured in season 1 of Daredevil, all the way to Wilson Fisk/Kingpin being a prominent villain for both characters throughout their comics history. Because they're two characters with a history together, it'd be great to see that brought to the big screen.
The Problems With Including Daredevil In Spider-Man 3
The big problem with this crossover is the deal for the Marvel Netflix series, signed years before Disney got into streaming with Disney+. This agreement gave Netflix the rights to the Marvel characters who appeared on the shows Disney produced for Netflix. This caused problems for Disney trying to put Daredevil or the other Marvel Netflix characters in other MCU movie or TV projects.
The details of the agreement aren’t public knowledge, but there seems to be a timeline for when Disney can use the characters again. Rumors suggest that Spider-Man 3 is set to start shooting in July 2020, which would put Daredevil out of reach for what would be such a central role in the movie.
Since time is running out soon on the agreement and Netflix has shown they don’t need Marvel superheroes, it seems unlikely that Disney and Netflix would strike a deal to bring the characters back any earlier. It’s also unclear whether Disney could use Charlie Cox as Daredevil, or if they’d have to recast before using him in other MCU projects. Given how much fans loved Cox’s portrayal of Matt Murdock/Daredevil, having to replace him with a different actor would be unfortunate if it were necessary.
How Daredevil Could Still Appear in Spider-Man 3
If rumors are right and Disney can use the Netflix characters two years after cancellation, that gives a timeline for Daredevil’s return. There’s still the possibility of a delay to Spider-Man 3 as the coronavirus outbreak shuts down productions across Hollywood. A delay pushing back Spider-Man 3 is undesirable for many reasons, especially with the fragile relationship between Sony and Disney. On the positive side, though, it could increase the possibility of Daredevil and Spider-Man crossing over. If Spider-Man’s production is delayed to after November 2020, Daredevil could seemingly appear without breaking the Netflix deal.
As unlikely as it is that Daredevil will appear in the MCU’s Spider-Man 3, there are ways to make it work, especially since Cox has previously been in favor of it. He’d fit in well with where the story left off at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, and it's something Marvel fans would love to see. The timing only works if the next Spider-Man was delayed, leaving a small chance that everything could line up to make a Spider-Man/Daredevil crossover possible.
