Marvel StudiosIt’s not every day a film can be described as “crowded” in a complimentary way, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day definitely deserves the distinction. Marvel’s latest film surrounds Peter Parker (Tom Holland) with a healthy ensemble of characters from every corner of its cinematic universe, and it’s all the better for it. After a trilogy of films that didn’t feel like a true part of the MCU, Brand New Day gets Spider-Man just a little closer to that goal. Spidey gets assistance from Punisher (Jon Bernthal) and Black Widow (Florence Pugh), fights the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and even briefly mentors a future member of the X-Men. It’s finally starting to feel like our friendly neighborhood hero is actually... well, part of the neighborhood. That said, Brand New Day almost went the extra mile to connect his corner of the MCU to another beloved pocket of New York City.Punisher almost introduced another member of the Defenders to the MCU. | Marvel StudiosWhen Bernthal’s Punisher joined the Brand New Day cast, most fans hoped that another member of this street-level world would make an appearance too: Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Unfortunately, the Man Without Fear doesn’t reunite with Spider-Man this time around, but his trusted medic, Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), came pretty close to taking his place in Brand New Day. Dawson confirmed as much at a recent Daredevil panel at GalaxyCon in North Carolina. “I even shot a scene in the new Spider-Man movie,” she told the crowd, “But I got cut out.”The actress didn’t reveal what form her role in Brand New Day would have taken, but there were already plenty of rumors about a potential appearance. Spider-Man receives a near-fatal injured towards the end of the film, prompting the Punisher to bring him to the hospital for treatment. That might have been an opportunity for him to take Spidey over to Claire’s clinic — in Netflix’s Defenders universe, she treated everyone from Daredevil to Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones), even occasionally helping them beat up some bad guys. Claire would have fulfilled her duties as the “Night Nurse” in Brand New Day, but screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers recently revealed that her role would have been earlier in the film. In an interview with The Wrap, the duo explained that Punisher would have brought Spider-Man to Claire after fighting Scorpion (Michael Mando). Ultimately, the scene was cut for time.Claire Temple would have been a great fit for Brand New Day, but her scene with Peter was “kind of a double beat.” | Netflix“It was great,” McKenna said of the scene. “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.”The writers revealed that Claire would have treated Spidey just before he encountered Bruce Banner at Empire State University — and inferred that their conversations might have been a tad too similar. “It’s kind of a double beat,” McKenna continued. Given how stuffed the film is as is, it probably made a lot of sense to cut some repetitive beats. Still, the fact that Claire almost showed up in the MCU bodes well for a return in the future. Dawson, at least, is game to return.“My character is somewhere in that same universe, and I really love that,” Dawson said at GalaxyCon. “I hope I get to be Claire again.”Spider-Man: Brand New Day is playing in theaters.