Daredevil director blames his own fandom on movie’s failure

2003’s Daredevil came out at a time when superhero movies were beginning to take their modern form. 2000’s X-Men and 2002’s Spider-Man were major box office successes, spawning franchises and, in a way, laying the groundwork for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But they weren’t all destined to be hits, as was the case with Daredevil. Now, 20 years after its release, director Mark Steven Johnson has some thoughts on why it didn’t work.

In a new interview with Yahoo! Entertainment to mark the occasion, Johnson said his Daredevil movie was just too cluttered. “Looking back on it, one of the mistakes I made with the film was wanting to put everything in! I wanted to do Daredevil’s origin story, and I wanted to do the Elektra Saga and I wanted to introduce Bullseye and Foggy. I wanted everything to be in there, but the film could only support so much.” In other words, there was far too much he wanted in there for the relatively short 103-minute runtime. “And then when you’re told to cut a half-hour out and make it more of a love story, things start to feel rushed and not quite right.” Johnson concluded, “It’s a fan thing: when you love something so much, you want to tell it all.” Johnson much prefers his own director’s cut, which runs over two hours, allowing the story and characters to better–if still inadequately–develop.

One person who will likely never give the Daredevil movie a positive spin is star Ben Affleck, once saying, “If I thought we were remaking Daredevil, I’d be out there picketing myself.” Now that would be a line longer than any at Dunkin’!

To most now, Affleck’s take isn’t just awful, but completely forgotten. The role all but now belongs to Charlie Cox. Cox has indeed made Matt Murdock his own, starring in his own series and bringing back the character recently in a Spider-Man: No Way Home cameo, as well as a small turn on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. This and next year are looking to be huge for Daredevil, as he’ll appear in 2023’s Echo, 2024’s Spider-Man: Freshman Year and return for his own series yet again with Daredevil: Born Again. And for those wondering, even Cox hated the first Daredevil movie, saying, “They had everyone in that movie–they had Kingpin, they had Bullseye, they had Elektra, they had Karen Page, they had Foggy. It was saturated, and it’s two hours. So that was part of that problem. And the suit sucks!”

What do you think of the 2003 Daredevil movie? Let us know below!