If you’re asking yourself why 20th Century Fox is moving ahead with a new “Daredevil” movie, it’s simple. If they don’t make another movie, the rights will eventually revert to Marvel Studios, and they’ll be able to reclaim their character and do whatever they want with it. They could happily drop Daredevil into an “Avengers” movie, whether it makes sense or not, if they owned the character outright.
Instead, Fox is going to do whatever they can to hold onto the character, and that means they have to make a new movie about Matt Murdock and Daredevil and the Kingpin and whatever other characters they hope to keep control of in the future. It’s the same reason there’s a “Spider-Man” reboot being made at Sony, and it’s the reason we’ll see another “Fantastic Four” film even if no one asks for it. It’s the reason there’s a “Ghost Rider 2” coming. The studios who own the various Marvel characters that were in production before Marvel started doing things for themselves are never ever going to willingly give up their hold on those characters, just in case.
“Daredevil” may not have been a hit, critically or commercially, but the character has existed long enough that Fox recognizes that there’s at least a chance. Maybe they didn’t get it right the first time. Maybe they won’t get it right this time. Does’t matter. As long as they have the rights, they can keep trying to get it right, as many times as they want.
Variety reports that David Slade, one of the many directors who was in the running for both the new “Superman” and the new “Wolverine,” has landed the job this time to bring “Daredevil” back to screens, and that he’ll simply be telling another Daredevil story without making a direct sequel to the 2003 film that Mark Steven Johnson made. Slade is best known for “Twilight: Eclipse,” but started his career with smaller genre fare like “Hard Candy” and “30 Days Of Night.” Like many interesting directors who are not also writers, Slade finds himself in the hard position today of being offered numerous jobs, none of which actually sound like something he wants to do. He’s talented, but he’s stuck making movies that are part of the system. Before he made “Twilight: Eclipse,” he famously posted a tweet mocking “New Moon” and expressing pure disdain for that entire franchise. Then he’s offered the gig and the first thing he does is explain that he was kidding and he’s really a big fan, and then he’s off and running.
It’s sad to watch on all fronts, and it’s another reminder that this is simply the way things work right now. If you want to complain, you have to stop rewarding them automatically for every bit of fanboy gristle they throw us, and a “Daredevil” reboot seems like a good place to start to me.
Let me ask… does anyone really feel like this is a film they need to see? I’d be curious to see if “Daredevil” fans feel like Fox will handle it any better their second time at bat.