David Slade shares the details on his Daredevil reboot that never happened

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

It is a shame that we haven’t gotten a quality DAREDEVIL on the big screen. From the looks of the sizzle reel he put together, Joe Carnahan‘s vision was going to be something dark and adult compared to the PG-13 version we got courtesy of Ben Affleck and director Mark Johnson. But, before Carnahan was involved, Fox was working with director David Slade to bring the Man Without Fear to theaters. Now that Marvel and Disney are back in control of the rights to DAREDEVIL, Slade is sharing what his project would have looked like.

In an interview with Film School Rejects regarding his work directing the NBC series HANNIBAL, Slade opened up about what happened with DAREDEVIL:

“It’s in the 70s, Kingpin is going through New York dealing with the Irish mafia, and there’s Daredevil in the yellow suit. It was all there! You know, it’s a big studio film and it’s tougher…there are certain people who are really good at that, and I hope to be really good at that. I will continue to try my best.”

Similar in tone to what Carnahan shared about his plan for the movie, Slade’s biggest difference is the use of the yellow suit. The red suit is what a lot of fans associate with the Daredevil character, but the yellow outfit would have served a nice way to separate from the failed 2003 movie. Slade has moved on and away from the project but also shared this:

“[I saw it as] really complex and exciting. It was complicated [Laughs], and in the most unimaginable Fox way possible. I was really, really excited about it . . . It’s funny, I remember Joe Carnahan went after it hard when the rights were about to go. He cut together that thing that was great and exciting, but it was kind of sad, in a way, because everything in that trailer we had attempted to do [Laughs]. Every single thing.”

Daredevil is by far one of the darkest Marvel characters aside from The Punisher and would have worked well in an R-rated, gritty world. Now that Disney has the character, I highly doubt we will get that take on the blind hero. Here’s hoping that whatever ends up happening that it does justice to the comic book.