Drew Goddard Reveals the Two-Film Daredevil Saga the MCU Never Made

Here’s a bit of Marvel history for you: before the Netflix Daredevil series ever hit streaming, Drew Goddard—the writer/director behind The Martian and the recent Project Hail Mary—actually tried to make Daredevil a full-fledged movie for the MCU. Yes, that’s right: Daredevil almost got his shot (again) at the big screen, but Marvel zigged and sent the character to TV instead.

How Daredevil Wound Up on Netflix Instead of in Theaters

So, back in 2012, Marvel Studios finally wrangled the rights to Daredevil back from 20th Century Fox. For context, the last time Matt Murdock had a movie, it was the much-derided 2003 flick with Ben Affleck. Not exactly a proud legacy to build on.

Goddard was hanging around Marvel during the big Avengers days, chatting up Kevin Feige and company, and he apparently wouldn’t stop asking why they weren’t doing a Daredevil film. Goddard claims, 'I was always like, "Why aren’t you making Daredevil the movie? I don’t understand,"' but at the time, the studio was worried the story was a little too adult for the Marvel brand, which (in 2012, anyway) leaned hard on kid-friendly PG-13.

Goddard then decided to go big and pitched two—yes, two—Daredevil movies in a row:

• First movie: Daredevil vs. the Kingpin. Goddard was adamant—how do you bring the character back without tackling his biggest villain? The plan was to nail the tone (hint: darker than your standard MCU adventure).
• Second movie: Enter the Punisher. Goddard wanted the follow-up to pit Matt Murdock against Frank Castle, mostly because he loves seeing two 'quote-unquote "heroes"' face off.

According to Goddard, the Marvel folks liked his ideas—especially that Punisher angle. The downside? Instead of greenlighting a theatrical run, Marvel was shifting some of the “more mature” heroes like Daredevil (and Ghost Rider) to TV, using their new partnership with Netflix to make it happen. So, no feature, but a TV series was born.

Netflix’s Daredevil: Goddard’s Movie, Season by Season

Here’s a fun twist: the first two seasons of Daredevil on Netflix basically followed Goddard’s master plan for the movies. Season 1 is all about Kingpin; Season 2 gets wild with Jon Bernthal's Punisher. So, even if you’ve never seen his name on a Daredevil movie poster, you’ve already watched most of Goddard’s version play out—just on the small screen.

'My vision is that the first one would be the Kingpin, because it just felt wrong not to... My second idea was that the villain of the second movie should be The Punisher. I remember that everyone in the room was like, "Oh, that’s exciting." We just did it on Netflix, which I think was the right fit for that.'

The Whole 'Showrunner' Debacle (He Wasn’t, Actually)

Here’s something that gets misreported a lot: it was announced that Goddard would be the showrunner for Daredevil Season 1 on Netflix, but according to him, that was never the actual plan. It gets a little messy, but in short—Goddard was in deep discussions, and they’d roughed out the season together, but then The Martian got greenlit and he switched gears to focus on directing that.

Steven S. DeKnight took over as showrunner, but Goddard says he was still involved, which is why his name is all over those credits. If you were confused, apparently so was everyone else. In Goddard’s words:

'I was not going to be the showrunner... Steven S. DeKnight comes aboard, and he and I go way back. There’s nobody better to do Daredevil than Steve. We mapped out the whole season already. So, now it’s just about Steve making it his own, right? That's why I’m still credited on all of those because we just kept working. Looking back, I think we should have just been clearer with the public.'

What Goddard Did Next

After the Sinister Six movie collapsed (anyone remember that Sony supervillain spin-off that almost happened?), Goddard jumped over to develop X-Force for Fox, but that project also died after Disney swooped in and bought the studio. More recently, Goddard popped up in James Gunn’s DC Universe writers’ room (apparently, Gunn wants him to introduce Detective Chimp—if you’re into deep comic cuts, that’s fun trivia).

These days, Goddard is probably too busy enjoying the huge box office wins for Project Hail Mary to worry about Daredevil (or Detective Chimp). Meanwhile, Daredevil himself refuses to stay down, with Disney relaunching him in Daredevil: Born Again—and, weirdly enough, that show’s second season arrives just four days after Project Hail Mary hit theaters. Sometimes the timing is just uncanny.

Will Daredevil Ever Be a Mainstream Movie Star?

For now, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock has only popped up in someone else’s movie (Spider-Man: No Way Home), not as the headliner. Marvel hasn’t officially put Daredevil front and center in a new big-screen outing yet. Give it time: these things, much like Matt Murdock himself, just won’t stay down.