Steven S. DeKnight Likens the Tone of Marvel's Daredevil to The Wire

2014 has been a massive one for Marvel Studios. It saw, on the big screen, the release of both Joe and Anthony Russo’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, and, on the small screen, the continuation of ABC’s “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” 2015, however, is looking to be an even bigger year for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition to Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man, the new limited series “Marvel’s Agent Carter” and even more “S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Marvel will be hitting Netflix with five new shows, beginning with “Marvel’s Daredevil.” Today, EW spoke with several of the key creative talents involved in the new Netflix show, revealing a few details about the superhero series.

“It does take place in the Marvel cinematic universe,” says Jeph Loeb, Marvel’s Head of Television, “It’s all connected. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we would look up in the sky and see [Iron Man]. It’s just a different part of New York that we have not yet seen in the Marvel movies… Within the Marvel universe there are thousands of heroes of all shapes and sizes, but the Avengers are here to save the universe and Daredevil is here to save the neighborhood… There aren’t going to be people flying through the sky. There are no magic hammers.”

Although previous reports mentioned that we won’t be seeing Bullseye on the series, showrunner Steven S. DeKnight offers an update that he may appear in future seasons. This season’s arc will focus primarily on the rise of Matt Murdock’s “Man without Fear” and Wilson Fisk’s Kingpin.

“Fisk has very many different aspects so it’s not all, ‘I want to conquer the city and make a lot of money,’” DeKnight continues. “In our story, we tell the story of how he met his wife Vanessa and how they fell in love — our antagonist actually has a love story. That’s the love story you’re following, the one you’re invested in, and seeing how that affects him and changes him… We really wanted to take our cue from [films like] ‘The French Connection,’ ‘Dog Day Afternoon,’ ‘Taxi Driver,’ and make it very, very grounded, very gritty, very real. We always say we would rather lean toward The Wire than what’s considered a classic superhero television show.”

DeKnight also says that, while having the series go to Netflix offers a lot of creative freedom, “Marvel’s Daredevil” isn’t going to be overtly violent.

“When I came onto this there was no way I wanted to make this hard-R or NC-17,” he says. “I don’t think the material warrants that. It is a little grittier and edgier than Marvel has gone before, but we’re not looking to push it to extreme graphic violence, gratuitous nudity or anything like that. The story does not require that and I think would suffer if you pushed it that far.”

Starring Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson), Rosario Dawson (Claire Temple), Bob Gunton (Leland Owlsely aka The Owl), Vondie Curtis Hall (Ben Urich), Toby Leonard Moore (Wesley, Wilson Fisk’s right hand man), Ayelet Zurer (Vanessa Fisk), and Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk), “Marvel’s Daredevil” follows the journey of Matt Murdock, who was blinded as a young boy but imbued with extraordinary senses, now fighting against injustice by day as a lawyer, and by night as the super hero Daredevil in modern day Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.

“Marvel’s Daredevil” is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios for Netflix and will debut in 2015.