Not only that but D'Onofrio has repeatedly expressed interest in reprising the role, although usually in the context of the Spider-Man films but I don't see why he wouldn't want to do it here. Thr question comes down to Feige and company and whether they want to bring in the Netflix shows into fold, even if on a surface level only. Of that, I have no doubt. But the fact that Nathaniel accepted the idea of his dad not making it home in time was still heartbreaking.
I think Feige's open to bringing some parts of the Netflix shows in - the parts that work - but "25% different." Like the Netflix shows were from a 'What If' Variant universe and this is the MCU's own version. Because, y'know, Perlmutter...
I didn't realize until I saw this post that his son is named Nathaniel, which I would assume means he was named after Natasha.
Given the news that Jessica Henwick was up for a role in Shang-Chi (probably Xialing*) they're not too worried about the Nextflix shows; so yes, it would be same actor, same character, different version. *Which would have made more sense as she's supposed to be younger than him and Meng'er Zhang is older.
Maybe, or certainly, I'm biased to those shows, I don't see what the problem would be. They acknowledged the Chitari, and didn't contradict anything that came after. I could lose Iron Fist, because they botched it. (Deserves another thread.) Daredevil, AKA Jessica Jones (I know, not the actual title, but it should have been) and Luke Cage should never be ignored or forgotten. 5 out of 5 for those three. Honorable mention to Punisher, I dropped Netflix on my streaming rotation before I finished the series. I'll get back to it.
Forgot to share my thoughts on the last episode. I was surprised we got Echo/Maya's backstory so soon, and as a big fan of Longmire I got a kick out of seeing Zahn McClarnon as her father. The fight at the toy store and the car chase were awesome, especially loved the stuff with the trick arrows. The phone conversation between Clint and Nathaniel was a great emotional, character moment. Didn't recognize Vincent D'Onofrio's laugh, but IGN's Jesse Schedeen seem pretty confident it was him in article I read this morning.
I guess you've forgotten the scene at the farmhouse in Age of Ultron where Nat asked about "little Natasha" and Laura admits that he's "little Nathaniel" (to which Nat says "Traitor" to Laura's belly). Oh, damn, I had forgotten about that (at least I think I knew about that, it does sound familiar). It's a shame she didn't get the role, even if Meng'er Zhang did a terrific job in the role. That said, that wouldn't have been the first time there's been double casting between the films and the pre-Disney+ shows, most notably Enver Gjokaj as Daniel Sousa in Agent Carter and Agents of SHIELD and a cop in The Avengers. I'm pretty sure there are other examples.
Alfre Woodard was Mariah Dillard in Luke Cage and Miriam in Civil War. She also seems to be doing voice work for Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur but that’s animated & presumably not part of the MCU.
I think the biggest example would be Mahershala Ali who played Cottonmouth on Luke Cage and will be headlining the Blade movie down the line.