A new Marvel TV series is poised to debut on ABC very soon with the period spy thriller Agent Carter, but 2015 will also see Marvel premiering its first foray into the world of Netflix with Daredevil. There series boasts Spartacus alum Steven S. DeKnight as showrunner and will introduce the world of Hell’s Kitchen, as Daredevil acts as the first in a series of Marvel Netflix shows that will debut over the next few years (the next being A.K.A. Jessica Jones in 2016). The premiere season of the Daredevil Netflix show will follow the origins of blind defense attorney/crime fighter Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), and while we don’t have a firm debut date for the show just yet, DeKnight and executive producer Jeph Loeb recently spoke a bit about what fans can expect from the series, including the prevalence of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin and when we’ll see Bullseye. Read on after the jump.
Speaking with EW, Loeb (who oversees all of Marvel TV) revealed that Daredevil will be unique in the Marvel universe in that its setting is very localized:
“Within the Marvel universe there are thousands of heroes of all shapes and sizes, but The Avengers are here to save the universe and Daredevil is here to save the neighborhood. It’s a very unique look at Hell’s Kitchen in New York, where Matt Murdock grew up and continues to defend it from people who would harm the people that live there.”
Loeb did reiterate that Daredevil takes place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, lest you worry this leaves him out of a potential crossover sometime in the future. But Daredevil is poised to feel very, very different from the Marvel output we’ve seen thus far if DeKnight’s influences manage to come across onscreen with any degree of significance:
“We really wanted to take our cue from [films like] The French Connection, Dog Day Afternoon, Taxi Driver, and make it very, very grounded, very gritty, very real. We always say we would rather lean toward The Wire than what’s considered a classic superhero television show.”
The series’ villain, Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin, is in keeping with this gritty tone, and Loeb says Daredevil’s first season “is about both the rise of the hero and the rise of the villain”, with DeKnight adding that we’ll get into Fisk’s personal life:
“Fisk has very many different aspects so it’s not all, ‘I want to conquer the city and make a lot of money.’ In our story, we tell the story of how he met his wife Vanessa and how they fell in love — our antagonist actually has a love story. That’s the love story you’re following, the one you’re invested in, and seeing how that affects him and changes him. I think Vincent just brings such depth to it, his performance is just astounding.”
As for whether fan-favorite villain Bullseye will be making an appearance, Fisk appears to be the primary antagonist this year but DeKnight doesn’t rule out the character popping up in subsequent seasons:
“I wouldn’t say there’s no plans to include [Bullseye] in the series. It’s not not to say he wouldn’t be in the series at some point. But I think if you try to jam in too many characters, it just becomes a mess. And [Bullseye’s] story was told in the last iteration of Daredevil that anybody saw. My feeling was, ‘Why repeat it?’ And honestly, if you’re looking for a juicy, multi-faceted crime drama, Wilson Fisk was the obvious choice to play the antagonist. Bullseye is a little more cut and dry. Not to say you couldn’t make him fantastic over 13 hours, but Fisk really felt like the right yin to the yang for Matt, and for what we wanted to do this season.”
Netflix has yet to set an official release date for Daredvil’s first season, but if I had to guess, I’d wager it might debut sometime in the spring between the premieres of the latest seasons of House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black.
