At some point over the next four weeks, Marvel fans will get to celebrate the return of Charlie Cox as he reprises his fan-favorite role as Matt Murdock, better known as Daredevil. This return will come as part of Marvel Studios' She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which just reached the mid-way point of its first season on Disney+.
Cox made his first appearance in the MCU as Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home with a 70-second cameo as Peter Parker's lawyer, although fans are still waiting for official confirmation on whether his three-season run on Netflix is MCU canon.
Then, Episode 5 of She-Hulk ramped up the excitement for his return even further with a short shot of a new gold mask, which Cox was seen wearing during the show's promotional trailers. That shot alone has MCU fans anxious to see how the Man Without Fear continues his story, donning his classic Daredevil suit for the first time in nearly four years.
So, that leaves the question - what do fans need to revisit in order to prepare for Daredevil's imminent arrival in She-Hulk?
Daredevil's Extended History in Marvel TV
Although Daredevil's time in the sure-fire canon MCU has been short, Charlie Cox has a long history of playing the role in the TV sphere. This includes four seasons of work on Netflix ahead of his anticipated arrival in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and this is just the start.
Listed below are six seasons of four separate TV shows in which Charlie Cox plays the role of Daredevil. For now, we're assuming that his work on Netflix will be confirmed as canon within the MCU, although that debate still rages on heavily.
Daredevil Season 1
There's nothing like a good superhero origin story, which Marvel fans get in the form of Daredevil's first season. Showing Matt Murdock's origins as both a lawyer and a superhero, these 13 episodes highlight the hero's journey towards building his law firm in Nelson & Murdock as well as his persona as the Man Without Fear.
Going up against Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, Matt has to learn how to best protect Hell's Kitchen while keeping close friends like Foggy Nelson and Karen Page out of danger. Wilson Fisk winds up going to jail as the public learns about a new vigilante, eventually dubbed as Daredevil.
Daredevil Season 2
With Kingpin more out of the picture in Season 2, Matt Murdock finds himself developing new relationships with other vigilantes, including Elodie Yung's Elektra Natchios. This leads to interactions with the Yakuza as Elektra and Matt's relationship rekindles after a decade apart, although that's far from the only powerful fighter that Daredevil encounters this season.
The other comes in Jon Bernthal's Punisher, who Matt actually ends up representing in court before Frank Castle winds up destroying his own case with the jury. Later, he helps Daredevil take down the mysterious organization known as The Hand, although it ends with Elektra sacrificing her own life.
The Defenders
The Defenders brought Matt Murdock into a team-up effort with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand as New York's group of street-level heroes go up against Sigourney Weaver's Hand leader Alexandra. While Matt is still mourning the loss of Elektra before her resurrection, working as a mostly pro-bono lawyer in Hell's Kitchen, he's forced into action defending Jessica Jones in court before meeting the rest of the team.
The season ends with Matt sacrificing himself in the final battle alongside Elektra as they stay behind to take down the Hand with a building imploding around them. But just before that eighth episode ends, Matt actually wakes up in a hospital bed next to a nun, setting up the rest of his Netflix journey.
Daredevil Season 3
Season 3 of Daredevil put Matt into more danger than ever as he found himself face-to-face with Ben Poindexter, better known as popular Daredevil antagonist, Bullseye. Poindexter even steals Matt's superhero suit in the middle of the season, impersonating the titular hero in order to help the Kingpin rise to power again.
With Matt having to resort to using his original black suit and mask, he works his way up to Wilson Fisk before giving the Kingpin an epic beatdown right in his own mansion, although he chooses to let the villain live. The season ends with Bullseye going into surgery to fix substantial injuries, Kingpin being arrested, and Matt finding his way back to Karen and Foggy to revive their relationship with one another.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
Past the era of Daredevil on Netflix, Daredevil started making his way over to the rest of the pantheon of Marvel heroes.
After years of campaigning for the Devil of Hell's Kitchen to come back in some form and rumors upon rumors of a comeback, fans were treated to a Matt Murdock cameo on the big screen with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Though his appearance was brief, it saw Matt back in action helping Spidey out with his legal troubles and being a "really good lawyer" by stopping a brick (that wasn't always a brick) from hurtling towards Peter's head. With Daredevil now firmly within the MCU, his No Way Home appearance has paved the road for his next Marvel crossover.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
While fans still wait to find out whether Daredevil's Netflix adventures are MCU canon, She-Hulk is set to fully integrate him into the MCU once more. Thanks to the aforementioned teases of his new yellow mask at the end of Episode 5, it should only be a matter of time before Matt Murdock and Jennifer Walters meet one another for the first time.
Reports have confirmed that Daredevil's time in She-Hulk will only be for one episode, although his inclusion has fans on the edge of their seats waiting to find out how he fits into the story. His relationship with Jen is sure to help both characters evolve more fully, and seeing two iconic Marvel characters meet is sure to be cause for celebration across the MCU fandom.
Coming Soon - Echo
While Echo won't come to Disney+ until 2023, Alaqua Cox's solo series is confirmed to bring the Man Without Fear back for his second Disney+ appearance, and his first in Phase 5. Cox will play a supporting role behind Maya Lopez while also reuniting with Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin after they both made Phase 4 debuts at the end of 2021.
For now, it's unclear how big either of their roles will be, although they both have heavy ties to Echo throughout their runs in the comics. This will also help set up Matt Murdock's solo run in 2024's Daredevil: Born Again, tying Echo to that solo series more fully as the Man Without Fear pushes forward in his MCU journey.
Daredevil Coming Soon to She-Hulk
With potentially three seasons of his Daredevil solo series and the eight-episode mini-event that came in The Defenders, Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock has a well-established legacy of storytelling on the small screen. And considering how exciting his cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home was, his return in She-Hulk should be just as thrilling.
Hopefully, that appearance will also help answer fan questions about the canonicity of Daredevil's Netflix material, which Marvel crew members have been hesitant to address from either side of the argument. But no matter how that debate ends, having Daredevil back in the fold in any form will add another layer of excitement to the MCU's growing story.
The first five episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are available to stream on Disney+.
