7 Times Comic Book Movies Had Crossovers Before Marvel

3. Ben Affleck's Daredevil Forged Its Own Little Universe

It wasn't just with terribly realised cameos that Fox were tentatively trying to bring comic-book style continuity to the big screen. Back in the early naughties, they tried to set up their own little Daredevil universe; the Ben Affleck-starring big screen debut for the Man Without Fear was intended to lead into an Elektra spin-off and, hopefully, beyond.

Of course, Daredevil was widely derided and Elektra panned, which stalled production of any any sequels for either character (something that was clearly intended, with both Kingpin and Bullseye surviving the former film) and eventually killing the idea.

That wasn't the end of Matt Murdock's crossover history, however; now Daredevil's at Marvel, he's heading up the Netflix multi-series effort The Defenders. This idea - of using a single character and the surrounding ephemera to create a massive, multi-faceted franchise - is something that Fox likewise tried to do with X-Men (and have just about got to work with the prequel movies and the Deadpool and Gambit spin-offs), but few other studios with a smattering of licenses have tried. Sony did propose it for their The Amazing Spider-Man series, but like with Daredevil they forgot to make the base movies any good first.