We’re approaching the two-year anniversary of Netflix canceling their entire lineup of Marvel shows, which opens the door for Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the Punisher to return to the sole ownership of Marvel Studios – if they haven’t gotten the rights back already, as there’ve been some reports that they might’ve. The majority of the Defenders-related output received a solid response from fans and critics alike, with the notable exception of Iron Fist, but Kevin Feige is set to disregard all of the events that unfolded on the small screen and reboot them into his shared universe with a clean slate.
The MCU might be pretending that we didn’t get a combined total of twelve seasons and one miniseries totalling 161 episodes, but there’ve still been widespread reports that several of the Netflix stars could be kept on and given the chance to reprise their roles. However, one potentially major drawback is that their contracts are said to be with the streaming service and not the show they appeared in, and if Marvel have any immediate plans for the Defenders, they’d have to either wait until the deal expires or recast the character entirely.
It was recently revealed that Iron Fist and Luke Cage could be rebooted as early as next month, and now noted insider Mikey Sutton claims that Marvel are keen to open talks with Charlie Cox as soon as he’s free from his contract in December. According to Sutton, Feige is a huge fan of the actor’s performance and is reluctant to cast anyone else as Daredevil, with the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen set to be the first former Netflix resident to debut in the MCU.
The studio president is reportedly much more interested in retaining Cox’s services than he is in acknowledging the existence of the Netflix series, and if the 37 year-old does join the franchise, there’d be no need for an origin story or a long-winded explanation as to who this guy is when he shows up on screen given that the majority of fans will have no doubt already seen Daredevil.
