Does Marvel Already Have the Daredevil Rights Back?

For the most part, we're all stuck inside with not much to do other than binge-watching television, catching up on the books and trade paperbacks that have gathered on the book shelf, or following along with somebody's impromptu workout class on Instagram Live. The whole situation has led to a fair amount of speculation and hubbub surrounding Hollywood and its bountiful amount of franchises, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe smack dab in the middle of it all. One of the biggest rumors circulating online this weekend is the fact rights for Matt Murdock and the remaining characters that appeared in Netflix's Daredevil have allegedly already reverted back to Marvel Studios.

The rumor itself is rooted in a mysterious Instagram post that's since been deleted. The picture surfaced on the account of an alleged Marvel Studios employee and featured Daredevil with a caption suggesting the character's rights were already back at Marvel Studios. It should be noted the post in question has already been deleted, the account in question has been made private, and ComicBook.com has been unable to verify the authenticity of the Instagram screenshot being shared on social media.

For the sake of conversation, let's say the Daredevil rights made it back to Marvel. How did that manage to happen? As been reported in the past, it's been a common notion that the live-action rights to the characters who showed up in the Marvel Netflix shows were in limbo for a full two years after their respective cancellations. That means Daredevil's rights should have been with the streamer until later this year — November 29th, to be exact.

Should Daredevil rights be back, when did that take place? Perhaps the "two years" reports were all just a ruse. Or maybe Marvel Studios made a deal with Netflix to bring the rights back earlier so the characters could appear in a project actively in development. After all, we've seen Feige and his team have been willing to play ball with rights before, previously exchanging characters between Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Deadpool, which was owned by 20th Century Fox at the time.

If that latter is the case, it's hard to imagine Murdock not appearing in Spider-Man 3 alongside Tom Holland's Spider-Man, as most of the popular fan theories suggest. Maybe the story is too on-the-nose for Marvel — after all, Matt Murdock is the House of Idea's most prominent attorney and the Feige-led outfit loves digging into the depths to pull characters out of the bowels of the Marvel mythos. Or maybe...just maybe...Ol' Hornhead is making his proper film debut quicker than any of us expected.

All three seasons of Daredevil are currently streaming on Netflix.

Where do you think Murdock will pop up first? Think it over and let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!