It’s ironic that Marvel Cinematic Universe fans demanded for years that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil be brought back and reabsorbed into the canonical fold, only to find something to complain about when it finally happened.
The actor’s comeback is about to take off in spectacular fashion, with this reintroduction in Spider-Man: No Way Home now being joined by animated series Freshman Year, Hawkeye spinoff Echo, and 18-episode revival series Born Again on the docket. First up is this week’s Disney Plus debutant She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, though, with plenty of MCU supporters genuinely worried about how the light-hearted and frivolous franchise will treat the street-level vigilante.
Alarm bells were raised when we were promised a lighter side of Daredevil in She-Hulk, with director Cat Coiro dancing around the question in an interview with ComicBook, even if she did stress Matt Murdock was always part of the process.
“I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it, but it’s very conscious and it’s very much planned. That’s all I can say.”
Showrunner Jessica Gao was a lot more forthcoming, indicating that the She-Hulk spin on Daredevil might not be the template from which the likes of Echo and Born Again will end up working from.
“We were like, ‘This is our version,’ and it’s true for any character. Like every character that we’ve used that existed in the MCU, it gets to be a little bit different on our show because you see them in very dramatic roles like these big high pressure, high stakes kind of situations but on our show because our show is more of a slice of life, they can kinda take a break from that. They get to take a little bit of a comedy vacation.
Of course, after our show, they get to go back to save the world, saving the universe, very serious, intense story but on our show, they get to just take a little break and when the universe is not at stake like, ‘What’s going on with you?’ They get a chance to really explore like a different part of their character because not everyone can be at a 10 saving the world every minute of every day.”
While that may not to much to silence the naysayers, one positive even the most concerned of Daredevil diehards can draw from the creative team’s comments is that even if Matt cracks a gag or two in She-Hulk, he’s not going to become a full-time quip machine thereafter.