Ever since Netflix canceled their Marvel shows, fans were curious when those characters might debut in the MCU. And when they did debut, would they be played by the same actors or would they be recast? While Marvel boss Kevin Feige had assured fans that Charlie Cox would be Daredevil going forward, hearing that is not the same as seeing him back on screen in the role. Now with Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye, we know that Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio would, indeed, reprise their roles as Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk from the Netflix Daredevil series. And it appears that the two stars discussed their respective returns behind the scenes.

Behind the scenes of Marvel’s Daredevil, Cox and D’Onofrio bonded on set and became friends. And, as it turns out, they’d talked to each other about reprising their roles in the MCU.

In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, D’Onofrio spoke about discussing the returns with Cox. "Charlie and I are friends, but we don’t really talk about Marvel stuff together because we know about all of the complications with reveals and stuff like that and what we’re contracted to say and not say. But as soon as Kevin revealed the fact that Charlie was going to participate, Charlie called me immediately and we had a huge conversation about it, which didn’t include anything about Hawkeye."

D’Onofrio went on to state that they had further conversations about it when it was revealed that he would be appearing on Hawkeye.

"When they showed the phone shot of Kingpin in [last week’s] episode of Hawkeye, I immediately called Charlie and we had another two-hour conversation," he said with a laugh. "So we are friends and we do talk about this stuff, but we do it very carefully and in an appropriate way."

It is a comfort that the two actors developed a comfortable enough friendship during the filming of Marvel’s Daredevil that they wanted to talk to each other about joining the MCU.

Both reveals have really excited the MCU fanbase. The portrayals of Daredevil and Kingpin from the Netflix Marvel series were considered to be excellent by viewers and critics alike, with the American Foundation for the Blind going so far as to honor Charlie Cox in 2015 with a Helen Keller Achievement Award for his accurate portrayal of a blind man.

“Since the show has been released, I’ve had a great number of emails and letters from people in the blind community experiencing degrees of vision loss,” Cox said during his acceptance speech for the award. “I had one particular stranger in London who was understandably stressed by her decreased vision.” The woman, he said, was more concerned with losing her independence than losing her vision. “I remember thinking that that is actually far away from the truth. Based on the experience that I’ve had on the show and being so amazed by the amount of tools and the support and education … that is not the case.”

Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock appears in Spider-Man: No Way Home, now in theaters. Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin appears in Hawkeye, now streaming on Disney+