“The Scales & The Sword” includes a City Without Fear segment, in which BB Urich (who hosts the program while wearing a caricature Kingpin mask) references the mayor’s “friendly neighborhood task force.” That specific phrasing is almost certainly meant to evoke “your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” turning a sequence highlighting Kingpin’s atrocities into a meta moment where Marvel teases fans over the long-desired Daredevil and Spider-Man team-up that has yet to happen and doesn’t seem close to happening.
Daredevil & Spider-Man Likely Won’t Team Up In Born Again
Image Courtesy of Sony
Daredevil: Born Again hasn’t been afraid to make overt Spider-Man references. In Season 1, Wilson Fisk mentions a vigilante who dons a “spider symbol” when addressing the people of New York, a very clear nod to Peter Parker. These Easter eggs are fun for fans, but they shouldn’t be interpreted as a sign of things to come. The hope, obviously, is that the Spider-Man teases are the creative team’s way of laying the groundwork for an eventual Daredevil and Spider-Man team-up on Born Again, but it’s highly unlikely that transpires — even though it would make sense for Peter to lend a helping hand and fight back against Fisk’s “friendly neighborhood task force.”
Even though there are plenty of story reasons to feature Spider-Man in Born Again, there’s one obstacle that’s even greater than Wilson Fisk: rights issues. Spider-Man, of course, is at the center of Disney and Sony’s deal that allows Tom Holland’s iteration to be part of the MCU. In terms of the feature films, Sony handles the distribution. Things are a bit more complex on the television side. Under the terms of the deal, both Disney and Sony are allowed to produce their own Spider-Man TV shows, which is how we get Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Spider-Noir in the same year. Since Disney has Spider-Man TV rights, some might assume that Holland could be carried over into a Disney+ series, but the specifics of the deal dictate otherwise.
According to documents that came to light during the 2014 Sony hack, Sony has exclusive rights for live-action Spider-Man TV shows of any length, plus animated series that have episodes running 44 minutes or more. Marvel Studios (Disney) can make animated shows with episodes that run under 44 minutes. This is the boring, legal reason why every episode of the animated Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is around 30 minutes. Granted, those documents are over a decade old, but it doesn’t appear as if there have been any amendments made to the conditions.
So, despite Spider-Man being one of the most popular Marvel characters, Marvel Studios cannot legally use him in a live-action MCU TV show. Of course, if Disney and Sony were able to come to an agreement regarding movies, they theoretically could iron something out for TV series, but that might be easier said than done. Fans have long theorized that Kingpin could show up as a villain in a Spider-Man movie, but Vincent D’Onofrio has thrown cold water on that numerous times, detailing the complicated rights issues involving Kingpin and possible film roles. It sounds like there’s a lot of corporate red tape blocking a Daredevil/Spider-Man TV crossover, and since there isn’t any box office money to lose on streaming, there’s no real incentive to try to get a deal done.
Could Daredevil and Spider-Man Team Up in an MCU Movie?
Any hopes for a Daredevil/Spider-Man team-up on TV have likely been dashed by the legal system, but there’s always the opportunity the heroes could cross paths on the big screen. Each of the MCU’s solo Spider-Man movies (which, again, are distributed by Sony) have featured characters that Disney owns the rights to. Brand New Day continues that trend by giving supporting roles to Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. The film also serves as the MCU introduction for Sadie Sink’s mystery character, who is reportedly set to return in Avengers: Secret Wars. If the rumors are true and she’s playing Jean Gray, that’s another Disney-owned Marvel character.
What’s more is we’ve already seen Charlie Cox pop up in an MCU Spider-Man movie. He made a memorable cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, appearing in a scene where Matt Murdock gives legal advice to Peter Parker. Of course, Matt didn’t suit up as Daredevil in No Way Home, but there doesn’t appear to be anything that prevents that from happening in the future. In fact, some fans are convinced such a crossover could be in the cards in Brand New Day.
As people dissected all of the footage in the recently released Brand New Day trailer, there was one specific shot that generated a considerable amount of attention. Towards the end of the preview, Spider-Man is seen jumping into action against a swarm of enemies (believed to be members of The Hand). The shot is framed in such a way that some fans are convinced Sony digitally removed characters from the trailer to preserve surprises in the finished film (similar to what they did for No Way Home marketing). The Hand is known for being one of the most prominent Daredevil villains, so it wouldn’t be a shock if the Man Without Fear teamed up with a certain friendly neighborhood spider to take them down.
Charlie Cox has denied he’s in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but as fans learned from the Andrew Garfield/No Way Home saga, you can’t always take what actors say at face value. Marvel stars are media trained and know what they can and cannot reveal in interviews. Viewers have been interested in seeing Daredevil and Spider-Man team up in the MCU for years, so if Daredevil is in Brand New Day, it’s likely something that’s being held back for the premiere. There’s no need to make that an integral part of the marketing campaign since the Spider-Man brand is strong enough to sell on its own. Time will tell if two of New York’s finest will cross paths on the big screen.
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