The Director of The Original DAREDEVIL Film Talks About It and How It's Haunted Him For Years

Superhero films were very different in the early 2000’s than they are now. Hollywood was scared to make them because they thought no one would want to watch them. In those early days there was a mix of both good films like X-Men, Spider-Man and bad films like Daredevil, Electra, and Catwoman.

The director of Daredevil, Mark Steven Johnson, reflected on the film in a recent interview and talked about how it has haunted him over the years. While the movie isn’t considered to be very good, it did have some fun moments.

"We tried some things, which I am proud of. I do like the look of Daredevil very much. We hadn't seen a superhero come home covered in scars, and chewing on pain pills, and it was kind of grim. You're not going to get that right now from a Disney-owned Marvel character. You're just not going to see that, and maybe there's a reason. But I found that very interesting. It was something you hadn't seen." 

Yeah, at the time it was different than the films that were being made and I’ll admit that the dark and gritty visual style was pretty cool. But as far as his comment about us not getting that dark kind of stuff right now under the Disney-owned Marvel… has he not seen the Netflix series? Because it’s pretty hardcore.

It wasn’t until after the Director's Cut of Daredevil was released that some fans appreciated the film because it is better than the theatrical cut. When talking about that, he said:  

"Even though they're uneven, I'm still very proud of that director's cut. I still think its worthwhile, and the hard thing now is when you look back, and you just see how far visual effects have come. It's like, 'Oh my God.' You look at the CGI Daredevil from 2003, and you're like, 'Yikes.' We have better-looking video game characters now than we did back then."

He then opened up about what’s haunted him over the years, explaining:  

"I know it's haunted me for years, because the people that, not all, but a lot of the people who didn't like the film, see the director's cut and really enjoyed it. But what good does that do you in the end? You just hope that people see that eventually, and make up their mind based on that." 

It’s been a long while since I’ve seen the original Daredevil movie, but after reading the director’s thoughts on it, it kinda makes me want to go back and rewatch the Director’s Cut just to see how I would feel about it now.

Source: CB