I remember clearly when Bob Iger teased the possibility of Daredevil and many of the Defenders Verse in future MCU movies. At that time it felt as impossible as a Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers Crossover, or the Fox acquisition, but now all of these have pretty much happened.
For a while it seemed Marvel Studios might restart the characters journeys, especially with the Darkhold being redesigned, but lo and behold, we've gotten Jarvis, Daredevil, Kingpin and Black Bolt with updated looks but otherwise the same character. And with more Marvel TV characters rumored to be on the way…this begs the question, is Marvel Studios hesitant to reboot these characters? I think that is the case, and I want to present some reasons why.
The Wolverine Dilemma
You know how unlike Spider-Man, Hulk and Punisher, only one actor has gotten to be Wolverine? A lot of people can’t think of Logan without thinking of Hugh Jackman himself, so much so, they brought him back. For many, recasting Wolverine may be damn near impossible, and I think that is the same for many other actors who’ve been the only actors to play a certain character in live action.
One just needs to see the love shown by campaigns like SaveDaredevil that prove that for many actors like Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio are the definitive versions of these characters.
The Disney+ Angle
One of the main reasons why Disney bought 20th Century Fox was so they could have a bigger library of content for their streaming service.
The platform seems almost determined to make itself the hub for Marvel tv, movies and animation. With how Covid caused delays at the launch of the service, only animation and Marvel TV shows were the way to get the Marvel fix, besides rewatching the movies, up until Marvel Studios started Phase 4 proper.
And just like how they're adding movies with R rating like Deadpool 1 and 2 and Logan, both of which will have relevance in future projects, they've added the netflix shows and Agents of Shield with a promo video celebrating it with stars of the shows. That's also a no brainer considering how popular shows like Daredevil were (during the show's release, and especially before No Way Home).
Why is this worth pointing out? Simple, there are other shows, like Helstrom, MODOK and Hit-Monkey, along with the Daredevil movie, The Incredible Hulk tv show aren't really a part of the platform. As such, a distinction over which projects the platform has and which don't seems to be which may have importance in a near future.
The Power of the Return
Nostalgia sells. We've seen it with Spider-Man No Way Home in the MCU, but everyone else is doing it as well. But what better time to do it, than now. With no Iron Man, Black Widow or Cap, new faces must be introduced, and with characters like Daredevil, they come with the added benefit of not needing explanation of their origin, as you may go watch the show instead.
But beyond that, it helps increase attention to projects. While Daredevil: Born Again will definetly hype up attention, a show centered around Echo may not, but the association with the hero may draw fans into it.
And that's pretty much it. If you finished reading it, thank for your time, and if you have any thoughts please leave them down below.
