Spider-Man: Brand New Day Could Be Hiding A Massive Cameo
Peter Parker might need help from a certain attorney-at-law. Or vice versa.
It seems that over the last few years, the biggest critical successes to come from the one-time pop culture juggernaut Marvel Studios haven’t been the films with world-ending stakes, but smaller-scale and more intimate affairs like last year’s Thunderbolts*. There’s been a particular renewed interest in the street-level side of the Marvel Universe; from the moment Matt Murdock showed up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, fans were demanding to revisit Hell’s Kitchen and the more overlooked sides of New York City, and their demands were answered with the release of Daredevil: Born Again. Among other things, the show dramatically shook up the status quo of the city by dropping Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) into the office of the mayor, a development that should have had major reverberations throughout the larger MCU, but judging from the trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, that probably won’t be the case.
For a show set in a supposedly interconnected universe, it can’t help but feel at times like the events of Born Again take place within a vacuum. Recently, it was revealed that the rest of the Defenders would be making their return to the MCU in season 3, making Hell’s Kitchen feel a bit more lively – and now one of those stars has let slip a crucial spoiler for the third season, and in the process may have teased an appearance by Matt Murdock in an unexpected place.
Charlie Cox’s Daredevil might be about to make his second big-screen appearance.
Over the weekend, actor Mike Colter made an Instagram post from the set of season 3, hanging out with co-stars Krysten Ritter and Finn Jones, as well as the Man Without Fear himself, Charlie Cox. The curious part is that the picture of Cox shows him in a prison jumpsuit, accidentally confirming the suspicion that season 2 of the revival series will somehow end with him being imprisoned. This, of course, is a situation Daredevil has found himself in multiple times in the comics – the first being Ed Brubaker’s 2006 storyline The Devil in Cell Block D (which sees Matt arrested by the FBI after his secret identity is leaked to the press), and the second being Chip Zdarsky’s 2021 arc Doing Time (in which Matt turns himself over to the police after accidentally offing a petty thief).
While the spoiler itself is a massive reveal for Born Again season 3, which might shape up to be a combination of both comic book storylines, there’s also the possibility that it could play heavily into Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In the first trailer for the movie, we catch several brief glimpses of Spider-Man fighting the Hand, a ruthless occult ninja clan that has been a thorn in the side of Daredevil, Wolverine, and the Punisher. One of those glimpses is set in what is clearly a prison, which raises the question of whether or not Peter Parker will be paying a visit to Matt Murdock in jail.
Daredevil in the “Doing Time” comic book arc.
As of right now, Peter is unaware of the fact that his one-time lawyer moonlights as a vigilante, but if season 2 does end with Matt’s identity being revealed to the public, he’s certainly going to find out about it soon. There are a couple of different reasons why Peter might be going to visit Matt: it could simply be advice about his own precarious relationship to his secret identity, but considering the Punisher’s presence in Brand New Day, he could be asking Matt about their complicated rivalry. There’s also the big question of why the Hand is once again active in New York City – in the comics, both the Punisher and Daredevil have acted as de facto leaders of the organization at separate times, both trying to steer them into serving their goals but inevitably being corrupted by the Beast, an ancient demon worshipped by the clan.
With rumors swirling that Charlie Cox might receive a solo film as Daredevil, could Brand New Day be a stepping stone towards an adaptation of Shadowland, the storyline in which Matt becomes the Hand’s new leader? Only time will tell, but one thing is for certain – a Daredevil/Spider-Man crossover, no matter how brief, will have big ramifications for both characters moving forward, especially if Matt finds himself behind bars by the end of this season.
