As Marvel Phase 4 enters its second year it’s clear that the MCU is swiftly embracing the exploration of alternate realities. We witnessed multiple variants of Tom Hiddleston’s god of mischief in Loki, not to mention three Peter Parkers in Spider-Man: No Way Home and now next on Marvel Studios’ slate is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Benedict Cumberbatch-led sequel has completed its reshoots and it’s rumoured a whole host of nostalgic cameos will feature in the movie with names like Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Sir Patrick Stewart’s Professor X being thrown around.
The latest is that Batman star Ben Affleck has been asked by Marvel to reprise his incarnation of Daredevil, long before Charlie Cox played Matt Murdock in his Netflix show and Spider-Man: No Way Home cameo.
Back in 2003, the Pearl Harbor star was cast as the blind lawyer opposite his future wife Jennifer Garner’s Elecktra, who returned to her part in a poorly received spin-off a couple of years later.
Now that Disney own Fox, the rights of the newly rebrand 20th Century Studios’ superhero characters like Daredevil, X-Men and Fantastic Four are all for Marvel Studio’s taking. And it turns out that multiple sources have claimed that Affleck was approached to appear as his version of Murdock in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
According to comic book movie scooper Manabyte: “Marvel made an overture to Affleck and his people offering him a very, very tiny (probably less than a minute) cameo…the idea was to sort of peek into that universe and close the door on that version of the character.”
Superhero movie fans will know that Affleck is reprising his Batman in Warner Bros’ own DC multiverse epic this year, The Flash, which will also feature Michael Keaton’s Dark Knight.
Manabyte added: “Marvel wasn’t expecting him to sign on for [Doctor Strange 2] as they felt he was too loyal to Warner Brothers and he’s in The Flash, which is a similar multiverse story. I do not know if he actually declined or not, just that the overture was made in the hopes he would do it.”
Big Screen Leaks corroborated this tweeting: “For obvious reasons, I was asked to keep this a secret but Marvel did indeed reach out to Affleck for a cameo as Daredevil. They sent out preliminary contracts to his team but I’m not sure if anything came of it. And yes, this was for [Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness].”
Other scoopers like MyTimeToShineHello said, “It’s true” and …….