When you cover superhero adaptations for a living, there will come a moment when you have to decide if you”re going to dive into weeds of obscure references, or just let go of a throwaway quote by a creator. Today, I choose the former.
Put on your waders, we”re going in.
During today”s TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour of upcoming Netflix shows, Steven S. DeKnight mentioned something about “Daredevil” in passing that SHOULD have made everyone go “Wait, what?” When DeKnight was ramping up for the first season of the show, he received very little pushback from Marvel. Except on one front: Rosario Dawson”s character, Claire Temple.
Originally DeKnight wanted Dawson to portray Linda Carter (no, not Wonder Woman) in the show. Carter is better known as the Night Nurse. Of course, “better known” is subjective as Carter is a pretty deep cut when it comes to superhero characters. But why did Marvel put the kibosh on that plan? According to DeKnight, it”s because there are movie plans for Linda Carter.
DeKnight explained, “The feature side had plans for her down the road, so that was the only time we ran into a conflict. So we just used another name.”
If you know anything about Carter at all, this is where things get interesting.
WARNING: PURE 100% GRADE-A SPECULATION BEYOND THIS POINT. POSSIBLE SPOILERS?
Night Nurse has been around in one form or another since 1961. But for the sake of expediency, we”ll start with her re-appearance 2004 in NIGHTCRAWLER VOLUME 3, #1. It was then that Linda Carter took on her current form as a covert physician to superheroes. After all, a masked vigilante can”t exactly waltz into the nearest hospital after a fight, but they still need medical care. Carter filled that gap in her capacity as the Night Nurse, running an underground clinic in Chinatown.
But most interesting is Carter”s connection to Stephen Strange. The two are intermittent lovers, a relationship that began in during the 2007 miniseries DOCTOR STRANGE – THE OATH.
By the end of the THE OATH, the two had fallen for each other.
That information certainly shines a new light on the rumors that Marvel is courting Rachel McAdams as the female lead in the upcoming “Doctor Strange” movie.
Whether McAdams lands the role or it goes to someone else, Marvel has a predisposition to pepper future characters of import in other films. Could Night Nurse show up in “Captain America: Civil War”? Considering her comic counterpart sided with Captain America – going so far to join his resistance group – the odds aren”t bad. Night Nurse has also had run-ins with the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, so there”s a chance she could pop up there as well.
Regardless of where she appears, one thing is for certain: the no-nonsense Night Nurse is headed to the MCU sooner rather than later.