The Marvel Cinematic Universe has sought to truly embrace the concept of Multiverse ever since the release of No Way Home. Whether it be the inclusion of multiverse Spider-Men or the cameo by Tom Hardy’s Venom, it seems that Marvel Studios has chosen to walk the path of unlimited possibilities after The Infinity Saga. However, one of the most surprising additions to the movie was someone who had always belonged to the MCU. We are, of course, talking about Matt Murdock. It was a surprise to see Charlie Cox in the movie but an interview reveals that writers had plans for more Daredevil scenes in No Way Home.
This movie was grand in scope. It did not only stretch back 20 years to the first Spider-Man but was also incredibly deep. Nary a frame was wasted and the entire film was curated for the viewer’s pleasure. This is evidenced by the inclusion of Cox’s Daredevil for only one scene. Although the writers seemed excited at the prospect of having Daredevil a Spider-Man movie there was only so much they could do with the character without having him overshadow the protagonist. The writers share this gripe in an interview. Take a look at what they had to say and stick around for the analysis.
Daredevil Scenes in No Way Home
No Way Home writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers had this to say during an interview on The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith:
“That was the challenge with this movie bringing all these other characters in. We love these characters, and you would love to see them do all kinds of stuff. But the question is, what is there room for? I could watch any of these characters we brought in just do a whole other movie by themselves or in some various combination, but we have to, ultimately, service the story of our Peter Parker and our Spider-Man. No matter how tempting it is … We had so many ideas come up in the room of, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if this guy does that, and these two meet and do that…?’
There are just so many exciting permutations now that we’re playing in this sandbox. But at the end of the day, there was only so much we could do, and we didn’t want to do things that would distract from the story of our Peter and our Spider-Man. So absolutely, once we knew we were gonna have Matt Murdock, it’s like, ‘He could do this, he could do that, that would be so cool, wouldn’t that be great?’ … But ultimately, we always had to pull back on a lot of things to just make sure we maintained our focus.”
It seems that marvel writers have realized the main problem with the multiverse quite early on. You can have a lot of interesting and awe-inspiring characters come in at any point in any movie but that does not mean that the story has space for them. The writers seem to echo this sentiment over and over again by implying that they had to focus on Peter.
The Consequences
When you have Daredevil in a Spider-Man film it can be tempting to have him fulfill the role of a guide but then something else would have needed to be removed. The story of this movie was sup[posed to be focused on Tom Holland the two older Spider-Men were supposed to be the guides. There was simply no space for Daredevil to butt in. However, there was space for a cameo and that was exactly what the character was given in the movie. Charlie Cox was put front and center for the audience.
This enabled us to confirm his return to the MCU. Moreover, this made people realize that the story of Daredevil would continue from where it left off. The cameo did what it was supposed to. It created chatter and acted as a pseudo announcement. Of course, an official announcement also followed soon after. But the important thing was that the focus was not removed from Spider-Men and their story. The sole reason why some big-budget movies like Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice fail is because of too many b-stories. No Way Home mitigates this by restricting its b-stories to the minimum requirement, and this works quite well.
Let’s see how the MCU is going to use Daredevil next.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter for more content.
Also Watch:
