Throughout Season 1 of Netflix, audiences got to watch as Matt Murdock balanced a life full of tragedy, religious iconography, enhanced senses and an increased interest in vigilantism. He came out of it with quite a bit of cuts and bruises, but it sounds like Season 2 will be focused on giving him just as many mental problems as physical ones, and that The Punisher and Elektra’s presence will have a lot to do with that. According to Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb:
In introducing the characters of Frank Castle and the character of Elektra, it was to be able to push and pull on Matt. It wasn’t just to have those characters join the ongoing ensemble cast. It actually was to have Frank on the one hand who sees justice in a very black-and-white kind of way, whereas Elektra lives more in the gray or says she lives more in the gray.
Fan service is great and all, particularly for a comic book show like this, but it would be a damned shame to bring in a fan favorite character like The Punisher just to show him mowing some crooks and cops down without any narrative weight to it. Both he and Elektra need to work their character influences all the way to Daredevil’s core to become as memorable as Wilson Fisk was in Season 1. I guess they don’t need to do that in order to be successful, but it wouldn’t hurt.
While Punisher and Daredevil will presumably face some major post-introduction differences in their approaches for handling crime in Hell’s Kitchen, Elektra has the advantage of having known Matt in the past, which will likely play a role in how she’s able to twist his mind. She reenters his life, and it’s learned that she was the one that left him originally, but that she has a favor to ask him. While Matt will probably have some baggage, it won’t just be their past that gives the lawyer a reason to be worried. Here’s what else Loeb had to say, according to SlashFilm.
I think one of the things that’s dynamic about Elodie’s performance is that you never quite know if Elektra’s telling you the truth. Matt, who has this sort of ability to be a human lie detector, because he’s emotionally attached to her, it skews his ability to be able to know whether or not she’s telling the truth or he’s being manipulated, or is she actually not manipulating him?
My guess? She’s going to be manipulating him part of the time, and not doing it other times, but it’ll be one of the times when she’s not doing it that Matt will find out that she did it previously, and all trust will be gone. But only temporarily. And my prediction for the Punisher storyline is that he doesn’t die in the end, since Netflix is talking about giving him a spinoff. I don’t claim to be clairvoyant.
Daredevil Season 2 will hit Netflix in its entirety on Friday, March 18. To find out when all your other favorite shows are returning and premiering in the next few months, check out our midseason TV schedule.
