Daredevil star Charlie Cox didn't hold any punches back when sharing his opinion on Ben Affleck's 2003 take on the Marvel character. The actor recently appeared at the Middle East Film & Comic Con 2022 in Abu Dhabi, where he revealed that he isn't a fan of the 2003 adaptation, which he watched after being cast as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the Netflix series.
Cox starred as Daredevil on the Netflix series of the same name for three seasons before its 2018 cancelation. The actor later reprised the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a cameo that generated a lot of buzz surrounding a possible second chance for the defunct show. Cox later confirmed that he would be returning as the blind lawyer/vigilante for an upcoming MCU project, though details remain unclear.
"I watched it once, and then I wanted to go and do my own thing," said Cox after a fan asked about his connection to the film, adding, "I hadn’t seen it before I got the role. I watched it when I got the role." Moreover, Cox shared that, although Affleck nails his portrayal of Matt Murdock, he feels as if Daredevil tried to fit too much information into its 2-hour runtime, something that affected its overall tone. "I feel like the movie tried to do too much, and it was a little tonally confused,", Cox explained before adding, "They had everyone in that movie — they had Kingpin, they had Bullseye, they had Elektra, they had Karen Page, they had Foggy. It was saturated, and it’s two hours. So that was part of that problem. And the suit sucks!" In addition to disliking Affleck's Daredevil suit, Cox would like to see some changes made to his own.
While speaking with ComicBook earlier this week, the actor shared that he's interested in seeing his character add the iconic Daredevil logo to his suit, which would symbolize an evolution in the superhero's emotional journey. "... I like the idea that he just makes that decision; we get to witness that evolution on-screen," he explained. "That's just a little idea that I've had that I thought would be quite cool."
Daredevil isn't the only Marvel-adjacent series to be canceled and subsequently removed from Netflix. Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, The Punisher, and The Defenders, all suffered the same fate. However, the shows have found a new home in Disney Plus, where they will begin streaming starting March 16.
Daredevil is now streaming on Disney Plus.