It’s official: the comic book movie has entered the retcon phase. Hulk: rebooted. Batman: rebooted. Superman: about to be rebooted. Next up may be Daredevil.
Fox is mulling returning to The Man Without Fear, and while there’s not been a specific statement that a new film would be a reboot, it seems almost inevitable. The original Daredevil didn’t set the box office on fire, and it certainly wasn’t well received. And there’s almost no chance that Ben Affleck, who has begun an artistically successful directing career, will redon the horns, and it’s even more doubtful that the studio would want him back.
Note that this is all essentially speculation; the information comes from a Variety article talking about Fox’s shitty, shitty summer and an in-house meeting on how to make movies that people want to see. On that agenda is more superhero movies, Daredevil among them.
The original Dardevil is a pretty bad film, and it really seems to miss the point of the character (he kills a guy!), but do we actually need a reboot? I certainly hope that this meeting doesn’t end up with the studio getting behind yet another origin story – just remind us of the character and his world in the opening credits and move along.
The real problem for Dardevil, though, is that his film rights remain at Fox. As the Variety article points out, Fox remains the single least talent friendly studio in Hollywood, and the recent spate of filmmaker-driven superhero successes proves that a top down, Rothman-heavy tact probably won’t make for a good movie.