She-Hulk writer couldn’t believe they could use Daredevil – but says some mystery characters were scrapped

She-Hulk head writer Jessica Gao has admitted she wasn’t sure if she could use Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in the upcoming Disney Plus series.

"I don't think we ever, in a million years, thought that we would be allowed to use them, because we didn't know what the status was of the character," Gao told Collider, adding: "We thought we were being pranked."

"We just kept writing him in, and we kept rolling with the story just thinking like, 'Okay, any moment now they're going to tell us we can't use them. They made a mistake. They actually don't have the rights.' But it just kept [becoming] more and more real. And it was so hard to keep that secret!"

Charlie Cox’s Daredevil appears for a brief second during the She-Hulk SDCC trailer, hinting that the Marvel universe’s two formidable legal minds in Matt Murdock and Jennifer Walters will be teaming up at some point during the nine-episode run.

Despite Daredevil’s inclusion, not every idea and character made the cut. Gao hinted that some plans were pitched but ultimately fell by the wayside due to the "borders" laid down by the MCU.

"Sometimes we'd come up with like an idea or a character we wanted to use, but you have to kind of stop and ask to make sure that it wasn't already been used, or there wasn't already another plan," Gao said. "And half the time that happened, and you kind of had to scrap everything and start over."

She-Hulk is set to debut on Disney Plus from August 17. A new teaser trailer has also revealed changes to Jennifer Walters’ origin story – and more from Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. Daredevil, meanwhile, is set to feature in his own 18-episode series. Daredevil: Born Again will premiere in spring 2024.

For more from the MCU, here’s our guide to Marvel Phase 4 and all the latest on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.