Rumor Report: Is Charlie Cox's Daredevil Going To Be In Spider-Man 3?

The Devil might be coming to Marvel's Spider-Man 3.

The hits just keep on coming for the hotly-anticipated Spider-Man sequel, with a wave of mind-shattering casting reports arriving in recent days, including teases regarding the possible returns of former Spidey stars Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Kirsten Dunst, Jamie Foxx, and Alfred Molina. Well, at least the rumors keep on coming, because none of those casting tidbits have actually been made official by either Marvel Studios or Sony Entertainment. That hasn't stopped the rumor mill from churning though, with the latest shocker claiming Charlie Cox has been inked to reprise his role as Matt Murdock (AKA Daredevil) from his beloved-but-cancelled Netflix series.

Before going any further, we'll go ahead and repeat that this news is very much a rumor, and has not been confirmed by anyone involved in Spider-Man 3's production, or anyone on Cox's management team. The potential update was, however, broken by the folks at Murphy's Multiverse, who have been on point with a few breaking tidbits in the past, so there's at least a glimmer of hope that this info might be accurate. Still, it's probably best to take it with a grain of salt for the time being.

That being said, it's also worth noting that the contractual restraints that had previously kept the Devil of Hell's Kitchen from crossing over with the wider MCU have very recently expired, which means Marvel once again holds the rights to the Daredevil character. And to the delight of Daredevil fans the world over, if this rumor proves true, it seems that Murdock's return will be much sooner than expected (i.e. December 2021). 

Of course, Daredevil's MCU arrival was very much a matter of who, as well, with many expecting Team Marvel to cast a fresh face to play Matt Murdock for his big screen debut. If this report is true, it now seems Kevin Feige has elected not to recast the role, and instead bring Charlie Cox back into the fold. That's great news for fans of the Netflix series which first saw Cox suit up as Daredevil, because pretty much everyone agreed it was far and away the best Daredevil adaptation to date. More importantly, everyone agreed that Charlie Cox's take on Murdock was as brilliant as anyone could've hoped for.

That's why fans were genuinely crushed when Netflix gave the series the axe a couple of years ago, so the possibility of Cox's return to the role will certainly appease the Daredevil masses. 

The question, then, becomes exactly how Murdock will fight his way into Spidey's orbit. Truth is, that introduction will probably be a lot easier than you think, as Spider-Man and Daredevil both call the Big Apple home, and have had many dealings in the comic pages. Given the head-spinning twist in the final moments of Spider-Man: Far From Home (which saw Peter Parker's secret identity outed by none other than J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson), it's safe to assume the current friendly neighborhood Spider-Man will be in desperate need of legal representation. 

As a reminder, Murdock is a defense attorney during the waking hours. And given his own crime-fighting agenda, he might be uniquely qualified to take on Peter's case.

Even though Charlie Cox positively owned the role of Daredevil on Netflix, fans should probably be wary of getting overexcited about his return, because even if nobody's denying it, they're also not confirming it. And as hard as it to think Cox might be left out in the cold when Daredevil arrives in the MCU, that still might be the case. 

Perhaps most telling on this subject is that as recently as April 2020, Charlie Cox denied he was returning to play Daredevil in any Marvel project, let alone the currently in-production Spider-Man 3. In an interview with ComicBook.com ahead of an online Daredevil watch party, the actor responded bluntly to questions of his rumored MCU debut, stating, "I hadn't heard those rumors, but it's certainly not with my Daredevil. I'm not involved in it. If that's true, it's not with me. It's with another actor."

"It's not with me" statement aside, we can play a little, ahem, devil's advocate with the first part of Cox's response, chiefly with the words, "it's certainly not with my Daredevil." As a reminder, it's widely speculated that the new Spidey flick will find the webslinger and Benedict Cumberbatch's Doctor Strange enmeshed in the multiverse, which is presumably how the other Spider-Men and villains would likely be around too. So even if Spider-Man 3 doesn't feature the same exact Daredevil Cox played on Netflix, he could easily turn up as an alternate version of the character.

Regarding Cox's denial, well, Hailee Steinfeld also denied she'd be appearing in Disney+'s Hawkeye, and has recently been spotted in full Kate Bishop regalia on the set of the streamer. So, maybe, feel free to take that denial with a grain of salt too.