Charlie Cox revealed that Marvel Studios knew fans would be excited to see Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home, so they styled the scene so that fans could take it all in without interrupting the film's flow by not having him speak.
Many were excited to see Cox return as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the Marvel Studios hit Spider-Man: No Way Home. Cox confirmed that, while filming his brief cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, by not having him speak when he first appeared in the film, director Jon Watts framed it so that the fanbase could celebrate his unexpected return to the cinematic universe, knowing his reputation as the Daredevil from his acclaimed Netflix series.
During a Megacon appearance, Cox detailed what happened behind the scenes while filming Daredevil's Spider-Man: No Way Home cameo. "The way they shot the scene, I was speaking - I think Jon Favreau says something - and then it's my line, but they wanted me to put my cane down and then wait for the camera to come around before I said my line. I said to the director, 'That's weird. Why are you doing that? It feels like I should just speak.' He's like, 'No, it's because people are going to be really excited.'" The director was ultimately right, knowing that Cox's last performance as Daredevil was in 2018, before Netflix abruptly canceled the show, much to the dismay of fans.
Cox's cameo in the film served two purposes: One, that Spider-Man: No Way Home would have plenty of cameos throughout the film, from callbacks from previously canceled television or film series. The second was that Cox was not done playing Daredevil in the MCU, which served as a massive sigh of relief knowing how strongly Cox's performance as Matt Murdock resonated with the fanbase in all the series he portrayed him. Cox has since played the character again in She-Hulk and will play him again in the upcoming series on Disney Plus called Daredevil: Born Again.
One could argue that Marvel Studios leaned pretty heavily into the fanservice in Spider-Man: No Way Home to the point where one would have to question if it was necessary to have certain characters come back in brief cameos ten years after its release. While other nostalgic callbacks were utilized better, like Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, from a plot perspective, there wasn't much of a point to having Murdock come back besides being a plot device for Peter Parker to be devoid of his legal issues following the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home. While it was awesome at the time to know Cox's iteration of Daredevil would resume, will his cameo in that movie hold any meaning not too long from now when fans get the MCU version of Cox's portrayal?
Props to Cox for being a team player throughout all of it. He was happy to come back to play the character, even for a few minutes. Sure, he may have been put off by how they executed his cameo, but he still did it, and now he gets to return to the superhero he embodied. Everybody wins, and that's what's important here.
Spider-Man: No Way Home can be streamed on Starz.
Source: Deotho/TikTok