Daredevil Steven S. DeKnight IS the Showrunner

[slumcat]

Damn! I hope Marvel knows what it is getting into.

But I doubt we will be getting a true Steven S. DeKnight show. I absolutely love the Spartacus series but it is the most adult show mainstream show ever aired on television. The series is filled with ear-bleeding profanity (every second word is an obscene curse word), retina-searing violence (the gore in this series is gruesome beyond words with every single portion of the human body being shown hacked to pieces are being made a mince meat of) and boundary pushing sex and nudity (nearly every episode features full frontal female and male nudity and sex scenes so explicit they just - but barely - stop short of the real thing.)

I think it is a revolutionary series but is Steven S. DeKnight the right guy? Forget hard R, the Spartacus series is hard NC17. And Daredevil will be PG13 at best.

Wouldn't DeKnight be terribly restricted as an artist and being prevented from doing what he best does - make a good show for mature adults?

 

[Six]

Well, you never know, the show is going to be on Netflix which has a lot more leeway than television.

 

[slumcat]

He will get leeway, but will Marvel give him leeway. Will they permit him to make as adult a show as he is using to making?

 

[O'Haire]

Never watched Spartacus, but this dude has written some of my favorite Angel episodes so it's all good for me.

 

[Bullseye1]

If Disney is really putting the fingers in the Marvel pie it's a strange choice to approve.

 

[cheungcheung]

Ya he is from the school of joss whedon so it's not like Spartacus and "hard r" tv shows is all he can do...

 

[Dasher10]

It probably won't be hard R but it'll certainly deal with adult themes. Great choice since I'm a huge Spartacus fan.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I've assumed for quite a bit that the plan is to push the limit of PG-13 anyway, so I don't think he'll have to tone it down too much.

 

[Rorschach2012]

IMO Daredevil should definitely be the most graphically violent MCU project. I would love it if DeKnight could bring that vision. The level of violence in the 2004 Daredevil Directors Cut was perfect for the character

 

[flickchick85]

Strange options in the poll. Our two positive scenarios are that it's either an awesome choice because it'll be R-rated or a good choice that's limited by PG-13 constraints? How 'bout an awesome PG-13-level show or a good choice that has nothing to do with the level of violence?

Anyhoo, didn't vote, but I think he's a good choice, and I dunno why people expect this to be R-rated. It's still the Marvel brand. And R-rated violence and awesomeness are never mutually exclusive.

Spartacus isn't the only thing DeKnight has done. His work on Angel was great and didn't need gratuitous violence/language/nudity/sex to make it so.

 

[Sawyer]

DeKnight also has experience writing superhero TV

Granted, I know most of you don't have the highest opinion of the show, and that's mostly deserved, but he wrote some damn good episodes (Onyx, Splinter, Zod, Justice).

 

[Panther X]

This is Marvel you're talking about. Have they ever given any of their directors 100% control?

 

[chronos]

Why would this need to be R rated? I don't see it necessary to put it anything here that they couldn't get away with on say cable TV. To be honest, if they added in things that would make it R, such as nudity or excessive swearing, I'd find it kind of gratuitous, and not exactly faithful to the source material. It can certainly have more of a dark mature tone and be more violent than the movies or AOS, but nothing in the DD comics I've ever read required them to be R rated.

 

[Mr. Dent]

Who says Daredevil will be PG13 when the whole reason they're putting them on Netflix is to push the boundaries and they said it would be gritty and for hard core fans?

 

[chronos]

Who says that you can't push boundaries and be gritty while being on the same level of content available on FX or AMC? I can see this as being on the same level of violent content and grittiness as shows like The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad and Walking Dead. I'm sure it'll be darker and more adult oriented than anything yet in the MCU, but I'm just curious what exactly would people want in this show to make it "R rated"? Realistically, is it just nudity, swearing and overtly graphic violence? Not that I'm against any of these per se, I'm just not sure it needs to be in these shows.

 

[bluerayer]

Who says that you can't push boundaries and be gritty while being on the same level of content available on FX or AMC? I can see this as being on the same level of violent content and grittiness as shows like The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad and Walking Dead. I'm sure it'll be darker and more adult oriented than anything yet in the MCU, but I'm just curious what exactly would people want in this show to make it "R rated"? Realistically, is it just nudity, swearing and overtly graphic violence? Not that I'm against any of these per se, I'm just not sure it needs to be in these shows.

Me personally, i would be expecting something along the lines of Law and Order: Svu, which i watch regulary, i dont know the age rating for that show but they have some horrendous stories without actually showing anything. And they pull it off, IMO.

 

[croboy82]

Spartacus is one of my fave tv shows so I have faith in him!

 

[metaphysician]

There should be a moratorium on statements that boil down to "violence, swearing, and sex make something adult." The vast majority of the time, what they make something is juvenile.

 

[flickchick85]

There should be a moratorium on statements that boil down to "violence, swearing, and sex make something adult." The vast majority of the time, what they make something is juvenile.

Agreed.

 

[JJmelo]

http://otlnews.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/daredevil-cast-for-the-netflix-series-rumour/

Spartacus became one of my fav shows after seeing some of those fight scenes. If DeKnight can bring that visceral tone to Daredevil Im totally in!

 

[Dasher10]

IMO Daredevil should definitely be the most graphically violent MCU project. I would love it if DeKnight could bring that vision. The level of violence in the 2004 Daredevil Directors Cut was perfect for the character

No. Punisher should.

Daredevil should be dark and it should deal with adult themes like substance abuse, prostitution, etc but it doesn't need gore to be a successful show. Even Ghost Rider, Blade and Moon Knight need more grisly deaths than Daredevil does.

And on the topic of Punisher, if it's a movie, I'd like Park Chan Wood or Srdjan Spasojevic to direct. If it's a TV show, then I'd still like them involved as producers because they're the only two people who I feel are twisted enough to bring Frank Castle to life.

And since Stephen S. DeKnight is involved, that increases the chances of Liam McIntyre being Iron Fist which is always good.

 

[Casius--J]

I think tone wise this should be on the side of how Angel was. It wasn't overly gory, violent or have nude scenes but I would say it pushed things to the limit in terms of what it could get away with.

Obviously Angel wasn't completely dark, it had some silly elements to it but for the most part it had a darker tone than most shows did.

 

[p4poetic]

Don't get option three; just because his most well known offering (Spartacus) was adult doesn't mean he'll make this show the same way.

 

[Baramos]

The level of gore isn't important, it's the writing and fight cinematography. If they can get some of the same talent that worked with DeKnight on Spartacus or the equivalent it'll be a great show.

Spartacus, amongst all the nudity and gore, had 1. strong, well-rounded characters and 2. intensely good plotting.

 

[T"Challa]

Spartacus had 2 of th most vicious well written female antagonists i've seen in a TV series. Lucretia and Illythia were some vile b***es but they were also very well rounded characters with plenty of depth. I hope this means good things for Elektra