DAREDEVIL Showrunner Goes into Detail about Brutality, Kingpin, and More
Yesterday Marvel released the first trailer for their Netflix series Daredevil, and I really liked what I saw. This series has so much potential to deliver something awesome, and I couldn’t be more exited to watch it.
In an interview conducted by IGN, showrunner Steven S. DeKnight opens up about the series. He discusses things such as the evolution of the costume, The Kingpin’s role in the story, Matt Murdock's religion, the inclusion of Stick, and the kind of brutality we’ll see in the series.
Here's some of the insight that he offered on the highly anticipated series:
Costume Evolution:
"Really, the reason we start with this version -- which is hugely influenced by Man Without Fear -- is for two reasons. One, this really is the beginning, the formation of Matt Murdock a Daredevil. On the flip side, it’s the formation of Wilson Fisk becoming Kingpin. It’s very much a parallel arc. We didn’t want to start him in the [red] suit. We wanted the early days of him figuring out what he was doing and making mistakes and getting the crap beat out of him on a regular basis. His suit, which we call his vigilante outfit, in the beginning - we tried practically everything, design-wise. We experimented with a lot of different head pieces. One version was a ski mask with the eyes sewn shut. We tried everything until we found something that just felt right. And also, really going back to that Man Without Fear, I can’t say where his costume ends up, where it goes, but there is definitely an evolution."
The Kingpin's Role:
"When we first meet him, he's a very mysterious figure, as you can gather from the teaser. Absolutely, a lynchpin of Season 1. I think there’s a no better way to start of the series than a formative Matt Murdock coming up against a formative Wilson Fisk. We were so incredibly lucky to get Vincent D’Onofrio, who is not only a phenomenal actor and an amazing person to be around, so very generous as an actor and performer, but I don’t know if there’s another human being on the planet that embodies WIlson Fisk, physically, like in the comics. I think, honestly, he is as close as you’re going to get, unless you’re doing an animated series. We just marveled. We were like holy s**t, it is Wilson Fisk come to life! Even in the teaser, when you just see him from behind, standing in front of that painting, you just get the feeling that it’s Wilson Fisk, the future Kingpin. Fisk plays a crucial role in Season 1, as the adversary of Matt Murdock. Also, on the flip side, Matt Murdock is the fly in Fisk’s ointment. What I love about this show is we’re able to explore some gray areas of who is really good, who is really bad, and which person is really better for the city in the long run. It's a question we really examine."
Murdock's Religion:
"I think it’s vital to the character. Matt Murdock is, I think, one of the most if not the most religious characters in the Marvel Universe, with the heroes. His Catholicism is so much part of his being and part of his conflict, I think it would be incredibly disingenuous to attempt to do the show where that’s not a big part of it."
Including Stick:
"We spent weeks and weeks talking about Stick and who do we get and I had been saying coming into the show, I was obsessed with getting Sonny Chiba and mixing it up but that didn’t quite work out. We had mentioned in the [writers] room Scott Glenn and I don’t know why it fell by the wayside but I was watching The Leftovers and I saw him and I believe he is in his earlier 70’s and in better shape than me or anybody I know. So I suggested everybody take a look at The Leftovers and his performance and everybody was on board. We reached out to his people and were delighted. First, I sent an email to my old buddy Damon Lindelof. I just wanted to make sure he was not shooting [The Leftovers]. I didn’t want to step on his toes and once that was cleared up, we reached out and he was very interested. He read the script and really liked it and said, "Yeah, I’d love to do it." I can tell you, one of the highlights of my career was getting on the phone with Scott Glenn, because he’s exactly how you would imagine him. He’s just a fantastic guy. He’s so great to work with. His portrayal of Stick... He’s perfect in that role."
Brutality:
"I always loved in the comics that also this is a guy that has heightened sense but no super powers. This is a guy who’s pushing himself to the limit who can get hurt and can get killed... I’m hugely influenced by the Frank Miller runs that I grew up with, where he was constantly getting the crap kicked out of him. Again, obviously there’s a bit of a heightened sense of reality that he can do what he can do and not end up in the hospital every other day. But we also touch upon why that is. Really, it’s like Batman without the money. He is just determined. It’s sheer force of will that keeps him going when a normal man would fall over and a lot of that I think, also in the Matt Murdock mythos, comes from his father and being a boxer and that kind of thing, where you just don’t quit."
Make sure to head on over to IGN to read more. There’s a lot of exciting stuff here, and it seems like they have a solid grasp on how they’ve handled this thing. Marvel's Daredevil debuts April 10th on Netflix.