Daredevil arrives in MCU with She-Hulk cameo, gets own series; fans stoked to see Charlie Cox reprise his role

There were over a dozen trailers, teasers, and announcements from Marvel Studios on Saturday at the San Diego International Comic Con (SDCC). Amidst all the hype about new Avengers titles, the Black Panther 2 trailer, and Captain America 4, it can be easy to miss announcements of some Disney+ series. But not when it is a fan-favourite character played by a beloved actor returning to the role after years of fan campaigns. That’s why Daredevil getting his own series starring Charlie Cox managed to get so much fan love despite being surrounded by such heavyweight announcements. As one fan tweeted, “The Charlie Cox Daredevil MCU takeover is absolutely insane. I’ve not seen a character get THIS much attention in the MCU before since Spider-Man.” Also read: Charlie Cox wants to play Daredevil till he is ‘too old for the part’

Marvel Studios announced on Saturday at SDCC that Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio will reprise their roles as Daredevil and Kingpin in an 18-episode series called Daredevil: Born Again. Both the actors first played these roles in Netflix’s critically-acclaimed and successful show Daredevil, which ran for three seasons from 2015-18. And as a bonus for fans, Daredevil also made a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in the trailer of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, also released on Saturday. And Charlie will also voice the character in the animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year. It’s raining good news for Daredevil fans!

Daredevil was part of a slate of Marvel’s original shows that streamed on Netflix from 2015-19. The Netflix shows are not considered part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a place reserved for the Disney+ shows only. Daredevil established Charlie firmly as a fan favourite and popular superhero. The show was cancelled abruptly after three seasons in 2018 when Disney bought Marvel Studios and planned to move all Marvel shows to its own streaming service Disney+. Since then, fans had campaigned vociferously to get Daredevil back up with Charlie reprising his role.

The first signs of that happening were when Charlie played Daredevil’s alter ego lawyer Matt Murdock in a cameo in last year’s MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home. Vincent D’Onofrio then appeared as Kingpin in the Disney+ show Hawkeye and both actors were announced to appear in its spinoff show Echo. But with Daredevil slated to headline his show again, fans feel they have achieved what they set out to do. One fan tweeted, “Feels like it can’t be stressed enough that the Daredevil fandom passionately lobbied for this for years without ever bullying studio employees, tanking audience reviews of other projects, or buying millions of bots to threaten execs.”

Many pointed out that unlike the Disney+ model of six episodes per season, Marvel was giving Daredevil 18 full episodes. “Daredevil is finally breaking the 6-episode format on Disney Plus with 18 episodes and I couldn’t be happier,” wrote one fan. And many expressed their happiness for Charlie, who had sacrificed professionally to make Daredevil work. One tweet read, “Charlie Cox turned down jobs because he thought Daredevil season 4 would happen. Now he’s back in No Way Home, She-Hulk, Echo, and his 18-episode Daredevil Born Again series. He deserves this so much.” Also read: How Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home brought Netflix Marvel shows into MCU6

There is still a long way to go before Charlie dons the Daredevil costume for the show though. The show will stream on Disney+ in Spring 2024, which is almost two years away. There are no other details about the project so far. But as of now, it’s enough to keep fans happy.