Stan Lee Desperately Wanted to Believe That One of the Most Popular MCU Superheroes Can Succeed on the Silver Screen – Was he wrong?

Stan Lee, alongside collaborators like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others, co-created many of Marvel’s most beloved characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and the Avengers. Some of these characters are central to the MCU and have become cultural icons.

This is why Stan Lee’s opinion was always important, and his statements carried great weight, historically, but even the great Stan was perhaps wrong in one aspect, related to one of the most popular Marvel heroes – Daredevil.

‘Daredevil’ was among the “early” Marvel superheroes to get a live-action project. ‘Daredevil’ was released in 2003 and the Man Without Fear was played by Ben Affleck alongside Jennifer Garner as Elektra and Colin Farrell as Bullseye.

The movie was a notable flop despite bringing in solid box office money, with fans reeling at the thought of it. Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Matt Murdock/Daredevil was often criticized for being lackluster. Additionally, the supporting cast, including Jennifer Garner as Elektra and Colin Farrell as Bullseye, was viewed as underwhelming or miscast.

Mark Steven Johnson’s direction was seen as inconsistent, with some finding the film’s tone to be uneven— rapidly going between dark and serious, and lighter, more campy moments. This lack of tonal balance completely buried the movie.

Back in 2015, Stan Lee stated that the first time around that Daredevil was adapted, he wasn’t adapted very well, and the late artist was adamant that another Daredevil movie was on the way and that would likely be a success:

Daredevil didn’t do as well as everybody hoped. I think that, unfortunately, they didn’t portray him the right way. Sooner or later there will be another ‘Daredevil’ movie, and I think it will do very well.

At that point, Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ released its first season but it was too early to tell whether the show was a hit among fans. Daredevil never did get his own MCU solo movie, but he is set to get a TV show, ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ which will officially merge him with the MCU canon alongside his supportive characters and villains.

There’s a reason why Daredevil never got another movie, as the superhero seemingly works very well only when it comes to episodic format.

The original Netflix show benefited from a longer format that allowed for a more in-depth exploration of Daredevil’s character and his complex relationships with supporting characters and villains – which is one aspect of the original movie that was criticized.

The TV series adopted a darker, more mature tone that aligned closely with the original comic’s gritty and realistic portrayal. This was a departure from the more inconsistent and sometimes campy tone of the movie, which failed to match the darker elements of Daredevil’s universe – and there are a lot of dark elements in Daredevil’s universe.

Perhaps a movie would work only after the show has been released and the fans are already familiar with all the details regarding Daredevil’s world.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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