Why Spider-Man No Way Home only had a brief Matt Murdock cameo

Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers follow.

Despite the myriad protestations, Spider-Man: No Way Home featured not one, nor two, but three surprise cameos when it finally arrived in cinemas.

As well as the long-hoped-for return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield in their previous Spider-Man roles, No Way Home also saw Charlie Cox appear as Matt Murdock for the first time since 2018.

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Much like Tobey and Andrew, Charlie went to great efforts to deny his involvement in the Marvel movie, but now that the secret's out, No Way Home screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers have lifted the lid on his comeback.

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David Lee/Marvel Television//Netflix

Revealing their excitement upon learning about Charlie's appearance, Sommers said the writers' room came up with all sorts of potential storylines before settling on having Matt act as Peter's lawyer.

"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?'" he recalled (via ComicBook.com).

Unfortunately, there was only so much the movie could do with Matt Murdock – and ultimately, the writers had to scale down some of their more ambitious plans.

"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?" Sommers continued.

tom holland as spider man, charlie cox as daredevil

Netflix/Marvel Studios/Getty Images/Digital Spy/ST//Sony Pictures

"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."

Despite there being "so many exciting permutations" for Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the No Way Home multi-verse, Sommers concluded there was "only so much" they could do without overtaking the movie's central story.

"We didn't want to do things that would distract from the story of our Peter and our Spider-Man," he said. "Ultimately, we always had to pull back on a lot of things to just make sure we maintained our focus."

Spider-Man: Far From Home is available now on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download. Spider-Man: No Way Home is out now in UK and US cinemas.