No Way Home Secretly Hinted MCU Daredevil IS Still Netflix’s Version

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Charlie Cox’s Daredevil made a surprise appearance as Peter Parker’s (Tom Holand) lawyer in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and an Easter egg later in the film teases more connections to the Marvel’s Daredevil series on Netflix that introduced him. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always kept Netflix characters like Daredevil at arm’s length, but with characters like Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin entering the MCU, it’s unclear exactly where those shows stand in terms of MCU canon.

Thanks to Marvel’s introduction of the multiverse, there’s now multiple iterations of characters appearing in different universes. Loki introduced multiple variants of known characters, while Spider-Man: No Way Home saw villains from other universes enter the MCU continuity to face Spider-Man, and the trailer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is also teasing an alternate Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), one of many alternate universe characters introduced in the What If…? animated series on Disney Plus.

Cox’s appearance as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home was brief as he counseled Peter Parker, Aunt May (Marissa Tomei), and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), giving a brief tease of his power, but there’s no references to any of his backstory or if the events of the Daredevil series on Netflix is fully canon; however, there was one tease later on giving an additional wink to the larger Marvel Netflix canon. When M.J. (Zendaya) gives Peter a cup of coffee at the end of the movie, it’s an iconic blue Anthora coffee cup that says “We Are Happy to Serve You,” which was a cup commonly shown in the Marvel Netflix shows, seemingly serving as an additional Easter egg, especially now that the ending made Spider-Man more grounded as a “friendly neighborhood Spider-Man” meaning he’s a more grounded New York hero, like the Netflix Marvel heroes.

Granted, this particular coffee cup is no means exclusive to the Marvel shows. In fact, the New York Times once described the cup as “perhaps the most successful cup in history,” so in some ways, the cup could be just as innocuous as a can of Dr. Pepper, but since the cup isn’t known to have appeared in previous MCU movies and received a close-up during the portion of the movie re-defining Spider-Man as a grounded New York hero, and is highly recognizable from its use on the Netflix shows, it seems slightly more significant than a simple random coffee cup.

Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin has joined Cox’s Daredevil in the MCU after his appearance on Hawkeye, and while Cox hasn’t commented on the status of Daredevil canon, D’Onofrio says Kingpin is the same version of the character seen on Netflix’s Daredevil. If that can be assumed to be true across the board, it looks like Netflix continuity may have finally united with the main MCU, even if it undermines the conclusion of Daredevil season 3.

About The Author

Stephen M. Colbert
(627 Articles Published)

Stephen has been writing for the site since 2016 and enjoys all manner of movies and TV, especially when it gives reason to obsess over minor irrelevant continuity minutiae.

Stephen has been infatuated with movie magic on screen and off since wearing out his VHS copy of The Making of Star Wars when he was 7. This passion continues in his work as a film journalist, whether it’s hunting down breadcrumbs about the Snyder Cut, breaking down box office trends, or obsessing over Rotten Tomatoes data, Stephen lives in the minutiae, as listeners of his podcast, Batman v Superman: By the Minute (with fellow-Screen Rant editor Andrew Dyce) know all too well.

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When he’s not writing on the site, Stephen can be found obsessing over vintage camera lenses, chasing his tiny children around, or getting himself into trouble on Twitter @smcolbert.

Yes, that’s his real name.

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