It’s no secret that Daredevil is a hot property for comic book fans. The story of blind lawyer Matt Murdock moonlighting as a vigilante has made him one of the most endearing, respectable, sensational, and psychologically interesting comic book characters in the medium’s history. So, after spending years as a 20th Century Fox property, the Man Without Fear officially became part of the Marvel Studios conglomerate as of October 10th, 2012.
While many fans rejoice, there are some who are taken aback by the switch. Marvel recently offered up the Daredevil rights for Fox’s Fantastic Four one, hoping, probably, to insert the first superhero family into their cinematic universe. As part of the deal, Marvel Studios also tried to attach Joe Carnahan to the project, in hopes to speed up production over at Fox. Carnahan took the role to heart and produced this wildly entertaining sizzle reel. Marvel Studios has not made any public announcements about what they plan on doing with the Daredevil character, if anything at all.
Before him, 30 Days of Night and Hard Candy director David Slade was attached to the Fox property, even claiming the Daredevil script was “amazing.” But, alas, Slade fell through as he got more and more pressing work and the project seemed dead in the water, once again, after going through two to three more screenwriters.
So, where does that leave us, now? Daredevil is a hot commodity at a studio bent on continually expanding their cinematic universe. But as many fans have stated, it would be difficult for Daredevil to fit into this Avengers universe (despite becoming one recently in the comic world). So, what should Marvel do? Take the property on its own two legs and work it within the confines of its own trilogy or universe? Use Daredevil as a character to open up to another, different, more realistic and gritty universe featuring the likes of The Punisher and Moon Knight? Here are some ideas for what Marvel Studios can do, who they can cast, and some good starting points for the Daredevil cinematic universe…
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7 Comments
good read, I was a fan of the 2003 film, it had its flaws (mainly elektra) but I enjoyed it. Would also love to see Tennant as Bullseye (or anything as I really rate him), he would be great!
Marvel, please cast James Gandolfini as The Kingpin. Forget Tony Soprano. He was born for THIS role!
Gandolfini would be terrific as The Kingpin. And Damien Lewis is the right choice if they’re looking for a movie adaptation of Daredevil: The End.
So you apparently like Daredevil a bit. It’s good to see someone who can write about a favorite thing of their’s without fanboying the crap out of it.
I agree with your thought that, as fun as it would be to see him mingle with the big boys, Daredevil doesn’t belong as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it currently stands. To me, he is too cerebral a character to be committed to a two-and-a-half hour movie, most of which would be devoted to origin. I agree as well that Matt Murdock is a lot more than JUST Daredevil, though I think he’s closer to the line than you make out (I’d say he’s about 55% MM, 45% DD).
Personally, because of the fact that Murdock is a lawyer, I think that Daredevil would work best as an hour-long drama on TV. A procedural that could showcase the regular guy as well as the superhero. Marvel Television is aching for properties, but Marvel Studios doesn’t know how to treat some of them. I think that, if they made a Daredevil TV show, along with the SHIELD show and maybe if they’d stop dragging their feet on this Hulk show, they have three perfect television properties that could be produced cheaply and do very well give the right creative teams.
Also, I love your casting of Kilmer as Kingpin and Oswalt as Foggy. Those are a spot on. I’m not very familiar with the work of the other actors (I know them by name and maybe a minor role or two) to say much about them, but Kilmer and Oswalt are perfect.
Oh, I also love Bily Bob as Urich, even though I think Joey Pants IS Urich.
And touching on Carnahan’s vision, I like the 70′s vibe, but I think DD belongs in the present. His tone I think was perfect though. It needs to be gritty,but still accessible. Think of how dark The Dark Knight was able to get without getting the R-rating, and that’s right where DD needs to be.
I’m guessing in true Marvel fashion that everything they do in the films from here on out will link together like puzzle pieces. Like it or not Daredevil IS an avenger and has been for a long time, if you are following the current stotylines you know that every book is going through a regenesis so the new fans can start at book one and that will surely be reflected at the box office. As a silver age daredevil fan I hate seeing sweet Karen Page depicted as a junkie whore so I’m hoping the films steer clear of the Miller plots all together with an awesome origin, Waid storyline, and Avengers cameos. On the other hand if they were to do the Born Again run it ends with an AWESOME tie in to the avengers.
A Daredevil origin story should be a mini-series, i think, plus a few movies, because the Ben Affleck movie was so boring and we don’t need Electra. Daredevil, The Amazing Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wolverine (X-Men), Black Panther, Namor, Deadpool, Doctor Strange, The Inhumans,Fantastic Four,and Black Bolt should all be bought by dysney and be in The Avengers 3 which should be a mixture of the Civil War and World War Hulk after The Incredible Hulk 2 is the Planet Hulk storyline after the end of The Avengers 2 were The Illuminati sends him into space without Iron Man’s permission, and a S.H.I.E.L.D. show and The Incredible Hulk show.