She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s eighth episode has landed on Disney Plus. And, after a two month wait, Daredevil has finally shown up in Jennifer Walters’ standalone TV series.
For fans of Daredevil’s Netflix series, it’s been an even longer wait to see the blind superhero on the small screen once more. Technically, Daredevil has already appeared in a Marvel Studios production – Charlie Cox reprising his role as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home in December 2021. However, you have to go back to October 2018, and the third and final season of Daredevil on Netflix, for Cox’s last appearance as the iconic costumed vigilante.
Ever since rumors about Cox’s Murdock/Daredevil appearing in the MCU began swirling, fans have wondered whether the MCU’s iteration is the same character from Netflix’s Defenders-Verse. Well, She-Hulk episode 8 finally gave us a definitive answer, with the latest Marvel TV show all but confirming this is the same Daredevil – and the intriguing revelation that Netflix’s Marvel TV shows are officially canon in the MCU.
Let’s start off with the numerous hints we get to the Netflix show’s canonicty in the MCU in the latest episode of She-Hulk’s Disney Plus series.
First up is the suit. Apart from the yellow hues that Murdock – or, rather, superhero tailor Luke Jacobson – has added to Daredevil’s suit, this is the exact same costume Daredevil wore in his Netflix series. The same helmet, body armor, shoes… you name it, it’s there. Daredevil also carries the same weapons that he possessed in his Netflix show, such as his extendable Billy Club and batons.
The next most obvious nod is the theme tune that opened each episode of Daredevil’s Netflix show. The musical cue plays when Jennifer Walters asks Matt Murdock if he’s a superhero following their fight in the parking lot. Fans of Daredevil’s TV series will immediately recognize the notes that briefly play during this scene of the MCU Phase 4 project. This isn’t the first time Marvel has teased us with a musical motif in one of its TV shows – Ms Marvel’s season finale contained the theme tune from X-Men: The Animated Series when she was revealed to be a mutant. So, there’s a precedent for Marvel heavily hinting at the canon status of non-MCU productions in the MCU – why would Daredevil be any different?
Thirdly, we get more than a passing reference to the final scene in Daredevil season 3. Earlier in episode 8 when Jen and Matt share a drink, Matt reveals that he’s still working in Hell’s Kitchen on a pro bono basis. This is a big call back to the final moments of Daredevil’s last episode when Foggy Nelson and Karen Page suggest that Matt start working with them again to help those who can’t afford to pay their legal fees.
There have been rumors that Elden Henson and Debroah Ann Woll will reprise their roles as Foggy and Karen in Daredevil: Born Again, the superhero’s standalone MCU TV series, which arrives as part of Marvel Phase 5. So it doesn’t take a genius to work out that Born Again will be a soft reboot on Netflix’s Daredevil show.
This offers an interesting counterpart to Cox’s own thoughts on whether Born Again, which lands on spring 2024, is a continuation of Netflix’s Daredevil. At D23 Expo 2022, the actor told ScreenRant that Born Again won’t be Daredevil season 4, but didn’t elaborate further. Well, Born Again doesn’t have to be a direct continuation of Netflix’s show for that streamer’s three-season to be deemed canon. There are more than enough references in She-Hulk to suggest it will be one way or the other.
The biggest clincher, however, about Netflix’s Daredevil series being canon in the MCU comes directly from Marvel itself. In an article posted on Marvel.com after She-Hulk episode 8, the company’s in-house editorial team writes that this is “very much the same Matt Murdock audiences have come to know and love over the years”. If that’s not concrete proof enough that this Matt Murdock/Daredevil is the same one from Netflix’s original series, we don’t know what is.
Of course, Marvel fans (us included) could be reading too much into that specific Marvel article. It might be that the article’s writer is hinting that Netflix’s Daredevil is canon in the MCU without outright confirming it, too. But the wording is just too exact for it to mean anything else. In our minds, then, this all but confirms that the MCU’s Daredevil is the same one we watched in three seasons on Netflix.
Maybe we’ll get more answers when Echo’s standalone series arrives on Disney Plus in 2023. Daredevil is due to cameo in that MCU TV show, too, so we may learn more about his canon status in that series before his own arrives a year later. For the time being, though, we’re nailing our flag to the mast: the MCU’s Daredevil is the exact same version as the Netflix one.
For more MCU-based content, read up on every She-Hulk post-credits scene so far. Alternatively, find out how to watch the Marvel movies in order, or get the lowdown on Intelligencia before She-Hulk’s season finale.