Joe Carnahan Reflects on His Unmade DAREDEVIL Trilogy Set Across the 1970s and '80s

Back in 2012, director Joe Carnahan was circling a bold and brutal Daredevil film that was just months from becoming a reality, until it wasn’t.

As the clock ticked down on 20th Century Fox’s rights to the character, the studio scrambled to keep Matt Murdock in their corner. Carnahan was hot off The Grey and The A-Team, and was their Hail Mary. But, then time ran out, and Marvel got the rights back, and Carnahan’s vision faded away.

Now, more than a decade later, Carnahan is opening up about the project, which would’ve given us a version of Daredevil unlike anything Marvel has delivered. Carnahan told CBR:

“You know what's funny? My Daredevil was a trifecta, and it was Daredevil '73 which was classic rock, Daredevil '79, which was punk rock, [and] Daredevil '85, which was new wave. That was, those are my movies, right?”

Carnahan was building a Daredevil trilogy that pulsed with the heartbeat of Hell’s Kitchen, each entry soaked in the music, grit, and unrest of a changing New York. Visually and thematically, it was shaping up to be Taxi Driver by way of Frank Miller.

Fox, of course, was desperate to keep Daredevil. Marvel Studios, already plotting its massive Infinity Saga, offered a trade, Matt Murdock for Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Fox declined. Instead, they gambled on a last-minute Carnahan project. But development stalled, and Marvel got their Devil back.

Carnahan, when asked whether he’s watched Netflix’s Daredevil or the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again, admitted,

“It’s hard for me to get into that. I think I got my heart broken by not being able to do it. And I know Charlie Cox is great. My buddy Dario Scardiopane runs the show. I love [Jon] Bernthal to death. I should have better reasons for not having seen it, but I don't.”

It’s clear Carnahan has a complicated relationship with the genre. He added:

“The A-Team was as close as I ever came to, like a guy with a cape, you know? And then, I mean, the El Chicano that just died a horrible death, but it was a really cool, kind of, like, a Latino Punisher kind of a thing.”

He continued:

“I enjoy the execution of those, like a fan, sitting in a theater watching them. But, is there stuff [I would work on in the genre]? Like Daredevil, but Daredevil is a blind guy that has this extra sensory thing.

“I'm interested in that, the kind of the street level [characters], you know, guys that aren't really blessed with anything other than this—something has been they've been deprived of something. So they have this extra sensory skill.”

Carnahan’s Daredevil would’ve been grounded, bloody, and drenched in style, a street-level character study and the concept seems like it would’ve been awesome.

But, I guess the way everything played out was meant to be, and new Marvel Studios owns it all, and they are running with it.

Would you have wanted to see Carnahan’s 1970s-set Daredevil?