Joss Whedon is currently doing the press tour for Avengers:Age of Ultron (review coming soon). During one such interview, Whedon revealed that he actually fought with Marvel to make it a film, instead of a TV series.
He said:
“I fought for Daredevil to be a film instead of a TV show. Then under the auspices of Drew Goddard and Steven DeKnight. I’m dying to see the show but they released it just as I started the press tour. If the show’s working, the show’s working. Comic books are serialised entertainment and a lot of them lend themselves to TV shows as much or more than they do to movies. I like Daredevil because he’s basically Marvel’s Batman, thanks to Frank Miller basically. So for me I didn’t think they’d be able to sustain that sort of mood on TV but TV has changed so much. It’s come up so much that I think it might just be the right place.”
Marvel kicked off the first of its four Netflix shows earlier this month, with Daredevil. The 13-part series landed on our devices on April the 10th. I’ve already binge watched it twice (review coming soon).
Ultimately, I think Marvel were right to go for a series. Netflix allows them to enter the slightly grittier side of the MCU, that mainstream American networks would never allow. I really hope the rumoured Netflix Punisher show is true.