With production having wrapped and all things in post-production now, we’re hoping to start seeing some real teases for the upcoming Daredevil series in order to really promote it. While that’s still sometime in the future, Entertainment Weekly has spent some time with showrunner Steven S. DeKnight and Jeph Loeb to talk about the show, which brings a few pieces into the picture, such as how it fits into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“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.”
As for the style of the series, it’s taking its own tone – which we’ve seen more and more with the films as well – so this fits in pretty naturally. “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.”
When asked about making Kingpin a workable villain, they went on to say, “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.”
It certainly makes sense to us to work with Kingpin first, since he’s long associated with the character and provides a good backdrop villain as events go on as well. Fans are clamoring for their favorites, which DeKnight responded with:
“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.”
The series stars Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk.
Plot concept: Daredevil follows the journey of Matt Murdock, who was blinded as a young boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, now fighting against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as the super hero Daredevil in modern day Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.
[Source: EW]
