Rosario Dawson finally got her shot at an MCU movie. If only we had been able to see her return as Claire Temple on the big screen. Dawson has revealed that she reprised the role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, only to have her scene cut before the film reached cinemas.
Speaking alongside Daredevil: Born Again star Vincent D’Onofrio during a GalaxyCon Raleigh panel, Dawson was asked which superhero she would most like to work with. Her answer came with a surprise.
“Well, I’m gonna have to say I could have said Spider-Man,” Dawson said. “I even shot the scene in the new Spider-Man movie, but I got cut out.”
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Her mother, apparently, had slightly different priorities.
“I told my mom, and she was like, ‘That sucks. Now I can’t post the pictures,’” Dawson joked. “And I was like, ‘Right, mom, me being cut out of the movie that has like the largest viewership of a trailer ever and the issue is you can’t post your BTS photos.’”
Dawson Had Her Spider-Man Post Ready
The deletion came with an extra layer of disappointment: Dawson has a surprisingly personal connection to Spider-Man.
Her uncle is a comic book artist, with Spider-Man the first character he learned to draw. Dawson also pointed to a more recent comic that has a young Peter Parker attending PS19 on New York’s Lower East Side — the same elementary school she attended.
“There’s a frame in one of the new comics that has young Spider-Man talking to Daredevil, and they made it that the young Spider-Man goes to PS19 in the Lower East Side, which is where I went to elementary school,” Dawson said.
“So when I tell you, my post was already ready with my BTS and my grandson wearing all this Spider-Man stuff because he loves Spider-Man. Then I got the email.”
Dawson jokingly summed up her fate as being “a reject of Spider-Man.”
What Claire Temple’s Deleted Scene Involved
Dawson wasn’t just dropping by for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance. Her return would have put Claire directly in Peter Parker’s orbit.
According to The Wrap, the deleted sequence took place after Peter’s fight with Scorpion, with Claire tending to Tom Holland’s injured superhero at the hospital. It’s an almost suspiciously perfect job for her.
Dawson debuted as Claire in Daredevil in 2015, regularly patching up Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock before becoming one of the connective figures across Marvel’s Netflix-era shows. She went on to appear in Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders, with her most recent appearance coming in Luke Cage Season 2 in 2018.
Frustratingly, by the writers’ account, her Brand New Day scene wasn’t removed because it didn’t work.
“Rosario Dawson is great,” co-writer Chris McKenna told The Wrap. “I wasn’t there for those discussions. But it was great. If anything, you have a movie that is two-and-a-half hours long, and it’s almost an embarrassment of riches with so many great characters and so many great scenes.”
Co-writer Erik Sommers suggested the runtime was ultimately the culprit.
“The scene they did was a good scene,” he said. “I think the only reason it’s not in the final cut was just it was probably cut for time because it was very good.”
Dawson Still Wants Another Shot at Claire
Being left on the cutting-room floor hasn’t killed Dawson’s enthusiasm for returning to the role.
“Because everybody’s in it, it still means that my character is somewhere in that same universe, and I really love that,” she said. “So I hope I get to be Claire again.”
She’s been saying as much for years. Back in 2022, Dawson welcomed Charlie Cox and D’Onofrio making the jump into further MCU projects and made it clear Marvel knew where to find her.
“So, yeah, I’d be super curious, but I’m just so stoked for everybody, though,” she told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. “It’s been a long time coming. I was really excited to know that all of our shows are actually part of the MCU now, with Charlie [Cox] and Vincent [D’Onofrio] coming over into these different projects now. So, yeah, 18 episodes [of Daredevil: Born Again]? I’m there! Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, they know where I am.”
Claire may have missed her date with Spider-Man this time, but Marvel clearly hasn’t forgotten about Dawson. And if Peter Parker ever needs patching up after another particularly nasty night, there are worse people to have waiting at the hospital.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Spider-Man: Brand New Day stars Tom Holland alongside Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Mark Ruffalo and Michael Mando.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently playing in cinemas.
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