It has been confirmed for some time now that Fox will be rebooting the failed Daredevil franchise. More tidbits of information have hit the internet, so it’s time to talk about the potential upcoming Daredevil film. More specifically, it’s time to talk about what direction the upcoming film should go in.
We have to cover the source material. What should Fox adapt to the big screen? Frank Miller's legendary run on the character is obviously a starting point for any filmmaker hoping to cover the man without fear, but is that the best choice? Early rumors suggested that the screenplay was going to be based off of Born Again, that story often hailed as the greatest Daredevil story ever told. Personally, I don't think doing Born Again would be a good idea. Born Again, to me, reads very much like the conclusion of Matt Murdock's story. Obviously strong stories about him have been told since then, but Born Again still stands out to me as the best ending a Daredevil series could possibly have. It begins with Matt in a very dark place, and ends with his entire life having been rebuilt, and Matt has finally found redemption and happiness by the story's end. To make Born Again work, you kind of need at least one canon Daredevil story preceding it, and obviously this wouldn't be the case with the reboot. Also, if Fox is planning a franchise this is also a bad choice; Born Again has one of the best endings ever, making sequels to follow it would be dumb. So that still leaves the earlier stuff of Miller's run as options for the studio, right? Well, yes and no. Trying to tell the Elektra/Bullseye story that is a Daredevil fan-favorite would probably be a mistake. The first Daredevil movie is still too fresh in the minds of the audience for the reboot to feature such a similar story. So, if Frank Miller's stuff is off the table, then what can they do?
In my opinion, the studio has three options if they want to make a good Daredevil film. Option number one: adapt Miller's Man Without Fear. For those of you who don't know, The Man Without Fear is a five issue limited series written by Frank Miller that chronicles the origin of Daredevil. It leaves the studio with excellent options for sequels; after doing Man Without Fear they could go into Miller's other Daredevil stuff without it feeling like a rehash of the first Daredevil film since we now have a buffer film to distance us from the 2003 Daredevil. From there, they actually could do Born Again. The main problem with this is that Man Without Fear is an origin story. Not many people want to see yet another superhero origin story on film; I don't even want to, and I eat that stuff right up. In Man Without Fear, Matt Murdock doesn't even don the Daredevil costume until the last page of the series. People aren't going to pay to see "Matt Murdock: Blind Law Student Who Occasionally Gets in a Fight", but if they change the story to include more Daredevil then it defeats the entire purpose of telling the story.
Option Two: adapt Bendis' run on the series. Brian Michael Bendis wrote Daredevil for five years, and his tenure is a great one. The pros of this option are numerous. Skip the origin completely and dive right into Matt as Daredevil (maybe do a little exposition in the dialogue or a flashback) and cut right to the chase. We can have Matt being ousted in the public and fighting Kingpin and other gangsters. You could base at least three films off of Bendis' run on the character. And people would pay to see an action packed "Daredevil vs. the Mob" movie. The biggest problem is that this run on Daredevil is dark and realistic. I know that might seem like a plus for some people, but we live in a post-Dark Knight world, where doing dark and realistic can rarely be better than Batman, and can often feel like a watered down retread of Batman.
Option Three: go with a swashbuckling, Mark Waid Daredevil. I know that Mark Waid's Daredevil might seem too recent to adapt to film (its only six issues in after all) but it is an undeniably awesome idea. Mark Waid's Daredevil is easily the best book Marvel is currently publishing (I said it!)and has one thing a lot of books and films don't have right now: joy. Mark Waid's Daredevil is a fun action romp that is still well-written and dramatic. And remember that before Frank Miller came on the book, that's what Daredevil used to be. A high-flying, colorful, and escapist Daredevil movie could be just what we need. We haven't had a superhero movie like that in...I can't even remember the last time we had a superhero movie like that! Again, skip the origin and get right into the Daredevil stuff, have him facing good ol fashioned super villains and make the action fun and fast. No need to be grounded in reality with this film, just have fun with it. And people sure as hell would pay for "Matt Murdock: Legal Consultant by Day, Daredevil by Night!” I know I would. The only real downside to this option is that Mark Waid's Daredevil doesn't really have a defining story yet, so the studio would have to write it themselves, but they could always use an old Daredevil story from the pre-Miller days with a modern spin to it.
As much as I want to see a well done adaption of Miller's defining Daredevil stories, it seems to me like swashbuckling is the way to go. Mark Waid has created something wonderful with his newly reborn light-hearted Daredevil, and it would be a shame if the studios didn't give it the chance it deserves. By the way, who should they cast? Voice your opinion in the comments!