With the rapid acquisitions and hostile takeovers on the Marvel Studios side of things in the industry in the past, the MCU has kept bolstering their repertoire of superheroes to further the narrative of the franchise. Among them is the addition of Charlie Cox as his iconic vigilante from New York City Daredevil.
Charlie Cox
With his upcoming TV series Daredevil: Born Again ready to hit the streaming platform Disney+ next year, people are excited to see the return of the star as Hell’s Kitchen’s devil once more. But before the hero was confined to the silver screen, there were talks of him getting his standalone film, which was quickly shot down as the studio execs did not want an R-rated film on the front lines of the MCU.
Charlie Cox Could’ve Played Daredevil In The MCU Far Before His TV Debut
Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in a still from Spider-Man: No Way Home
Before the iconic Netflix series brought the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen to the masses as a gritty and raw superhero, there was a time when Ben Affleck played the role of Daredevil for 20th Century Fox in the film of the same name. Alas, that film tanked badly, which prompted the studios to cease its production and expansion any further.
But in 2012, the rights to the vigilante reverted to Marvel Studios, who had plans to bring the character out in a new light on the big screen.
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In a 2015 interview with IGN, Drew Goddard, the creator who eventually became the showrunner for the character’s initial Netflix series, opened up about his plan to make an R-rated Daredevil film for the MCU. He also pitched to the company to not make him a world-saving bigshot superhero, but a hero that keeps his part of the world safe.
Unfortunately, Marvel Studios weren’t ready to make an R-rated film for the main timeline just yet, and the production budget of $25 Million wasn’t the kind of budget they could work with, especially when the cinematic juggernaut wanted a big-budget film for commercial success. Goddard said:
“I went into Marvel and talked to them about making it as a movie a couple of years ago, long after the Affleck movie. But what we all sort of realised is that, this movie doesn’t want to cost $200 million. The thing about Matt Murdock is, he’s not saving the world. He’s just keeping his corner clean. So it would feel wrong to have spaceships crashing in the middle of the city. But because of that, Marvel on the movie side is not in the business of making $25 million movies. They’re going big, as they should.”
But what the company did have hiding in their safe of ideas was to build a TV empire, just like their cinematic endeavor, which was eventually where we saw Charlie Cox take on the role of Matt Murdock.
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What’s Next For Daredevil?
Charlie Cox and Tatiana Maslany in a still from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Despite the excellent reception that the Netflix series received, Daredevil was eventually canceled and scrapped from the narrative when Marvel Entertainment was acquired by Marvel Studios. Thus, fans were sad that they wouldn’t be able to see the superhero again.
But surely enough, the character was brought back to the frontlines of the MCU, where we saw Cox making his appearance as Daredevil in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. It was later confirmed that the star would further appear in his own series titled Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+ alongside Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin.
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Daredevil: Born Again, releasing on Disney+ in 2024.
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Despite the high demand of fans for the introduction of Daredevil, Marvel Studios hesitated to give Charlie Cox his standalone film. Read More