What to Expect For Daredevil’s Second Season
The below contains spoilers for various episodes of Daredevil Season 1
The first season of Marvel’s Daredevil was released on Friday to critical acclaim. The series focuses on the world of New York City in the days, months and years after the alien invasion from the original Avengers. Matt Murdock is a man trying to direct the city to a future where people can live without fear, and Wilson Fisk is a man trying to shape the city to his own interests, which are often criminal in outlook. What is distinctive about this series is the format in which it was presented, as well as the subject matter. As opposed to the world of power suits and magic hammers, the plot focuses on the efforts of one man. This man may have some extraordinary abilities, but he is also more mortal than most of the superheroes from Marvel have been shown to be, and this is done through the semi-serialized format of the television series. As opposed to a two hour movie, the series and its characters was explored over thirteen episodes, which far surpasses the length of any other character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in terms of screen time.
In order to look forward though, it is also important to look back. The Marvel Cinematic Universe started with Iron Man in 2008, but at the time it was considered to be a big enough gamble. Now we know that it is a gamble that paid off as we can see far into the future with phase 3 of the roll out of the movies, and numerous television shows, but it is remembering that much depended on the initial success of that movie. If the finished product hadn’t been what it was, it was likely that the Marvel movies might have ended up as a false start as opposed to a booming franchise. The same can be said for the Netflix series. Releasing entire seasons of series to Netflix for binge watchers is a new phenomenon in television watching, started by the series House of Cards, but it is a phenomenon which is apparently here to stay. In terms of Marvel’s properties though, it is a trend which maybe needed to be waded into instead of diving in head first. After all, the series known for binge watching were more along the lines of Breaking Bad than Iron Man. With the gamble seemingly paid off, it would seem likely that although only hinted at, that the Daredevil series will be seeing a second season. Some have played around in the press with this idea, but generally speaking Marvel fills a pattern of leaving fans wanting more and then giving them what they want.
Where might the second season of the series go? It is hard to predict about where specifically that might be, although there were a lot of Easter Eggs left to guide the path somewhat. Equally though various characters were used in far different contexts than in the comics. Leland Owlsley was just a banker with no powers, and he met an end to his story. Other mainstays of Daredevil comics were not mentioned or even hinted at, such as Bull’s Eye. What strong influence that there was came from the Hand. Although not focused on much in the final episodes, the Japanese were the only ones left standing in the end after the dust had cleared. The connection of the Japanese to the Hand is not direct necessarily, but the use of Nobu in ninja costume is indicative that there might be something more to the Japanese than simply crime interests. In the episode where Stick battles the Japanese it is clear that there are other forces at play as well. The other Easter Egg which points towards this direction is Elektra, who was not referenced by name, rather simply as the “Greek Girl from Matt’s Spanish Class.” Elektra of course ties heavily into the stories of the Hand, being one of its most fearsome fighters, and later one of its most dangerous enemies. The martial arts focus ties into other planned series as well, specifically Iron Fist.
At this point where the second season might go is only speculation, but it would seem as though the minds behind the series were smart enough to leave in a few pointers of where it might head in case they ever did get a chance to get to a second season. If Marvel does in fact have a sense of what the fans want, then they will know that one of the remaining names on the list to cross off is Elektra. There is no better place to insert her into the Marvel Cinematic Universe than in a second season of Daredevil, and no better story to be told with her than that of the Hand.
