Daredevil star Charlie Cox says the character's proper MCU return should be a soft reboot. Daredevil was the flagship Marvel Netflix TV show, and it set the pattern for everything that came after it. As excellent as the scripts may have been, though, the secret to its success lay in inspired casting choices - notably Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, and Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin.

Execs at Marvel Studios seem to have recognized this truth, bringing back D'Onofrio's Kingpin in Hawkeye and Cox's Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The future looks bright for both characters, with their roles feeling like clear setup and the Marvel Netflix shows moving to Disney+ from March 16. The only question among viewers, however, is whether or not Cox and D'Onofrio are playing the same iterations of their iconic characters, or whether Marvel will take advantage of the multiverse to conduct a soft reboot.

Related: No Way Home Finally Fixed Green Goblin's Original Spider-Man Ending

Cox was invited to a panel at the Middle East Film and Comic Con 2022 in Abu Dhabi (via The Cutaway), where he celebrated his return and aired his own views on this topical debate. Although he stressed he preferred to leave the writers and creative teams to make their own decisions, he nonetheless pointed towards his preference for a soft reboot.

"I don't think it makes sense to pick up where we left off. I think... in keeping with a lot of things in the MCU right now, where there's this kind of alternate reality, kind of thing going on... so it’s a good moment to have this, you know, there’s been… a few years have passed, you know, and now I don’t know it’s Daredevil but maybe there’s it’s not quite… it’s reimagined."

Charlie Cox as Daredevil

Cox's comments do retain an element of ambiguity, however. On the one hand, he points to the idea of the multiverse as a way to potentially reboot the franchise; on the other, he notes a few years have passed, and it would be quite easy to conduct a soft reboot of Daredevil simply by taking advantage of the time. The Marvel Netflix shows are all set before Thanos' snap, ending in early 2018, whereas Spider-Man: No Way Home is in 2024 - six years later. Thus Daredevil's status quo could have changed radically in those six years, allowing for a soft reboot without de-canonizing previous seasons. Still, in either case Cox seems to want a soft reboot.

It's interesting to contrast Cox's comments with those of D'Onofrio, who seems to want a straightforward line of continuity between the Daredevil Marvel Netflix shows and the one seen in Hawkeye; what's more, subtle costume details suggested the Kingpin was indeed the same version. It's quite likely Marvel's writers are still deciding how to play this, though, and in the absence of guidance from the studio the two actors are simply airing their own views. Hopefully it won't be long before Daredevil returns in the MCU, and it becomes clear whether or not Spider-Man: No Way Home is a continuation or a soft reboot.

More: No Way Home Makes Iron Man's Endgame Fate & Legacy Darker

Source: The Cutaway

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