The world is talking about Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The highly-anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe movie unveiled its first trailer in recent days and it has very quickly resulted in an enormous level of buzz. The Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios collaboration had made audiences wait for the first look at the film, with both studios skipping the Super Bowl - which is exactly where fans were expecting to see the trailer. Instead, a month-long wait built up an immense amount of anticipation for the 38th MCU flick before the trailer was unleashed to a rapturous response.
The first look set the 24-hour record for a trailer, resulting in 718 million viewers in one day as fans tuned in to see Tom Holland's Peter Parker websling his way back onto our screens. They also saw the first look at the return of Jon Bernthal as The Punisher, who appears in a supporting role - the film's release will mark his first ever big screen appearance as the MCU antihero. And he won't be the only Daredevil: Born Again star to appear in the film, either (Zabryna Guevara reprises her role as the Kingpin's campaign manager Shiela Rivera).
The question is: Will Daredevil himself, Charlie Cox, join them? Here's what Charlie Cox has to say.
Charlie Cox rules out Spider-Man: Brand New Day appearance as Daredevil
According to Charlie Cox, Daredevil won't appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The Marvel star recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss Daredevil: Born Again season 2 and, during the interview, the topic of Spider-Man: Brand New Day understandably came up. Host Jimmy Kimmel asked him if he would be appearing in the film and Cox, rather confidently, responded "No." And yet, his full response has fans wondering if he might be lying about that:
"No. But if I was in the movie, I would also say no. BUT... I'm not in the movie."
Of course, when an actor says they aren't in a movie, it's understandable that we should take them at face value and believe their word. But Marvel is an entirely different ball game. When it comes to these larger-than-life MCU movies, cameos, crossovers, and surprises aren't just welcome - they're fully expected. And, with both Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday on the horizon, fans are expecting a lot of Marvel surprises this year.
Considering that Brand New Day is a Spider-Man movie, there are multiple reasons that fans aren't convinced by Charlie Cox's denial. For starters, committed denials when it comes to Spider-Man movies don't carry any weight after Andrew Garfield's outright claims that he wouldn't appear in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. Of course, he did - but it really became a bit as to how committed he was to saying "I am not in that movie" when, in fact, he was.
Furthermore, as Cox points out, he did actually appear in the previous film. Matt Murdock served as Peter Parker's attorney when his identity leaked out to the public. It was a cameo appearance, but it really set the ball rolling on bringing Daredevil and his friends back to the MCU. And it also established that the man behind the Daredevil mask has a pre-established relationship with Peter Parker - even if the film's conclusion wiped that relationship from existence.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set in Daredevil: Born Again's New York City
It's really no surprise that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set in New York City. All Spidey fans know that the Big Apple is the webslinger's backyard and we've seen that in full force throughout the Spider-Man: Homecoming trilogy. However, now that Daredevil and friends are in the mix, they are on our screens much more regularly than Spidey due to the fact that Daredevil: Born Again is an ongoing TV series.
As a result, you can already see in the influence that both of them will have on each other. In the first season of Born Again, Mayor Wilson Fisk acknowledged the existence of a hero who dressed like a spider - the first reference to Spider-Man in the MCU in four years. And now, the wall-crawler's return in Brand New Day will feature a number of Daredevil references - making it the first MCU movie to directly acknowledge the events of a Daredevil TV series (Cox's 2021 Spider-Man: No Way Home cameo took place when there was no ongoing Daredevil show and the character's MCU future was unclear).
Jon Bernthal becomes the second star of the grittier, grounded Marvel shows to appear in an MCU movie, as he officially brings his version of The Punisher to the big screen for the first time ever. We know that The Punisher is a staple of that realm of the MCU shows, appearing in Netflix shows Daredevil and The Punisher, as well as the first season of Disney Plus' Daredevil: Born Again. He'll also be back on the small screen this summer in the Punisher Special Presentation, too.
As we said above, he won't be the only character from that corner of the universe to appear in Spider-Man's new movie, as he will be joined by Fisk's campaign manager from Daredevil: Born Again Sheila Rivera, and the villainous organization The Hand - who were a fixture of the Netflix shows (and the big bads of The Defenders). Fans have even speculated that the film's first trailer spoils the ending of Daredevil: Born Again season 2.
With all of that in mind, fans are convinced that Daredevil will appear alongside the Punisher and that the duo will help Spidey defeat The Hand. After all, they were once The Man Without Fear's archenemy and - in many ways - New York is his city. Why wouldn't he be there - especially if he has already disposed of the threat of the Kingpin at this point in time.
There are some theories that one of the trailer's final shots - which features Spider-Man jumping down towards The Hand - has digitally edited out other heroes on Spider-Man's side. Many have pointed out that The Punisher wouldn't have needed to be edited out on his own due to the fact that we know he's in the movie. So, perhaps, there are more heroes there that Sony opted to hide - with one of them being none other than Daredevil.
Daredevil and Spider-Man have a long-standing history of team-ups. We've seen them form an alliance to battle all kinds of threats in the Marvel Comics, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and they even crossed paths in Disney Plus' animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (with Cox voicing the character). Cox's cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home was a nod and / or reference to this relationship. Perhaps Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the moment in which we'll actually see that relationship in action.
So, no, from an official standpoint Charlie Cox has ruled out a Spider-Man: Brand New Day appearance. From a Marvel standpoint, it's still very much on the table.