Executive Producer Steven DeKnight Talks DAREDEVIL and Says Matt Murdock is "Like Batman Without the Money"
Marvel officially released the first teaser trailer for their Netflix series Daredevil earlier today and fans are about half and half when it comes to being over- or underwhelmed. It's just the first teaser and it didn't show anything substantial so it's okay to be on the fence right now.
The trailer could be (and already has been by websites who lack a Thesarus) described with a collection of overused terms used to describe comic book-related projects. 'Dark,' 'gritty' and 'grounded' are a few that come to mind but one of the things that stood out was the amount of blood in the teaser. Marvel Studios' films and Marvel Television's series have yet to show much blood outside of characters showing face damage from battle. In the new teaser, Daredevil had blood dripping from actor Charlie Cox's mouth and a huge pool of blood was surrounding a victim.
Being on Netflix has allowed for Marvel and Daredevil executive producer to explore more blood and new concepts not yet seen in the movies or other TV shows, like Matt Murdock's religious association. In an interview with IGN, DeKnight spoke about how Murdock's religion plays a part in the series.
"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."
Religion will surely bring with it lots of debate in online forums and comment sections, as will the fact that fans have only been shown a black spandex-like Daredevil ninja suit. DeKnight touched on the topic of his costume.
"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."
Finally, DeKnight spoke about the blood and brutality of Daredevil and even compared him to a poor man's Batman.
"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."
Daredevil premieres all its episodes at once exclusively on Netflix on April 10.
To read more about Daredevil, click right here.