The latest episode of Marvel Studios‘ Secret Invasion on Disney+ features an Easter egg calling back to Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix.
Secret Invasion Episode 2, “Promises,” features a news report by the fictional FXN News network. This is noteworthy, as FXN News was actually an original creation of Netflix’s Daredevil, which ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2018. As pointed out on Reddit, FXN appeared in the Daredevil Season 3 episode “One Last Shot” in 2018. This Easter egg comes amid continued speculation regarding whether or not the Marvel Cinematic Universe would uphold Netflix canon moving forward.
Is Netflix’s Daredevil canon to the MCU?
Daredevil premiered on Netflix as the first in a line of live-action dramas centering on street-level Marvel heroes. These shows shared continuity and were ostensibly set within the larger MCU, taking place after the Battle of New York in 2012’s The Avengers. Over time, however, Marvel Netflix shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones developed an estranged relationship with Marvel Studios’ shared universe. The same can be said for other pre-Disney+ MCU shows, such as ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hulu’s Runaways.
Daredevil stars Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio (who played Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, respectively) eventually joined the MCU proper — Cox in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home and D’Onofrio in the Disney+ series Hawkeye. Cox later appeared as the Man Without Fear in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Both Cox and D’Onofrio will star in Marvel Studios’ upcoming Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, again reprising their iconic Netflix roles.
Even so, fans have wondered if Marvel Studios still considers Netflix’s Daredevil to be 100 percent canon, or if the studio is soft-rebooting the show’s characters for the mainstream MCU (given perceived changes to things like Kingpin’s power level). Interestingly, before Born Again premieres, Cox’s Daredevil and D’Onofrio’s Kingpin are expected to appear in Disney+’s Echo, a spinoff of Hawkeye. This is of note, as unconfirmed rumors suggest that both Echo and Born Again will directly reference the events of Netflix’s Daredevil, thus cementing the show as MCU canon. Secret Invasion prominently featuring FXN, a creation of the Netflix series, appears to lend at least some credence to these rumors.
New episodes of Secret Invasion arrive Wednesdays on Disney+.
