UPDATE: Marvel Television boss Brad Winderbaum has taken to Instagram to (seemingly) confirm that The Watcher did indeed appear in Daredevil: Born Again's latest episode. Whether it was an intentional cameo remains up for debate, of course...
In this week's episode of Daredevil: Born Again, Bullseye attempts to make up for Foggy Nelson's death by targeting Mayor Wilson Fisk and his wife, Vanessa. She previously manipulated Dex into killing the lawyer, and, in the melee that follows, ends up with a shard of glass embedded in her temple.
That's seemingly the end of the road for Vanessa, and her death has ramifications that star Vincent D'Onofrio has confirmed will be felt in Season 2 and 3.
The question is, was it a big enough moment to warrant the presence of The Watcher? Many MCU fans on social media believe so.
As you can see below, a shot from outside Fogwell's Gym shows what seems to be Uatu's silhouette as Daredevil and Bullseye flee the aftermath of the Kingpin's charity boxing match. While it's more just the general shape of The Watcher—created by the shards of glass and inside lighting—than a physical cameo, it really does look like the What If...? cosmic being played by Jeffrey Wright.
There's a good chance that this is just a coincidence, but even if it's an accidental cameo, it's a pretty cool one. This would also mark the first time The Watcher has appeared in a live-action project, not counting the photorealistic I Am Groot shorts.
"He's devastated," D'Onofrio recently said of Vanessa's death, hinting at where Fisk's story goes from here. "He's always been broken, he's always been incredibly narcissistic, and that midway point moving forward, he becomes more of a loose cannon than he has ever been before. Considering the position that he's in as mayor, it's a dangerous thing."
"The idea of a friend getting hurt, especially someone as incredible as Ayelet, it affected me, like a good friend that's been hurt."
"I know that might sound silly to some people," the actor continued, "but when you get invested in a character or, more than that, when you get invested in a story, and you've done emotional work with your scene partner — in this case, Ayelet — for years and years and years, there's no acting required."
Take a closer look at The Watcher's Daredevil: Born Again "cameo" below.
In Daredevil: Born Again, survival, resistance and redemption collide as the battle for the soul of New York begins. In Season 2, Mayor Wilson Fisk crushes New York City underfoot as he hunts down public enemy number one, the Hell’s Kitchen vigilante known as Daredevil.
But beneath the horned mask, Matt Murdock will try to fight back from the shadows to tear down the Kingpin’s corrupt empire and redeem his home. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild.
Created by Dario Scardapane, Chris Ord and Matt Corman, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 stars Charlie Cox as the titular masked vigilante (aka Matt Murdock) and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk.
"A brutal, relentless tour-de-force, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is a Marvel masterstroke that sees Charlie Cox take the Man Without Fear to unprecedented heights, delivering the definitive take on Daredevil," we said in our 8-episode review published last week.
Daredevil: Born Again is now streaming weekly on Disney+.