The panel kicked off with Marvel's Head of Television Jeph Loeb confirming that five shows will air on Netflix; Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and ultimately The Defenders. Interestingly, he added: "Just to clarify - neither the role of Jessica Jones nor of Luke Cage has been cast. Anything else is just a rumor." Why no mention of Iron Fist? It could be that we'll hear some news about casting for that role sooner rather than later seeing as there was no mention of him from Loeb. Back to Daredevil though, and Loeb shed some light on how the role of Matt Murdock was cast...before they even got the rights back from Fox! "One day the phone rings, and Joe Quesada says to me, 'I found Matt Murdock.' I didn't know what he meant. 'There's this actor. He's gonna be on Daredevil.' and I said to him, 'We don't have that property right now.' He said, 'Well we will.' The person Joe picked out that day is the person that we cast, and that is Charlie Cox."
Showrunner Steven DeKnight also shed some light on where they're turning to for inspiration, and while Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.'s Man Without Fear is clearly influencing the series, so too are two fan-favourite runs on the Daredevil comic book. "My favorite stories were the Miller run and the Bendis run - you'll really see that in the gritty tone of the show." Vincent D'Onofrio meanwhile had plenty to say about the direction they're taking The Kingpin in. "Our Wilson Fisk is a child and he's a monster. Everything he does comes from his foundation of morality inside himself. Meeting Vanessa, the one thing she does for him so far is brings him out of the shadows." He praised how personal they make it all and said it's a blast so far." This will clearly be an origin story for that villain as well, with DeKnight making it clear we could end up rooting for both characters as we see the, "moral grey area of Matt Murdock, being a lawyer by day and a vigilante at night. We lean into him being one bad day from becoming Frank Castle. With Wilson Fisk, you'll hear an idea and go 'that's actually a pretty good idea.' You'll root for him sometimes."
British actor Charlie Cox will play the titular character, and Loeb was quick to praise his work ethic so far. "It's a real challenge, there are so many aspects to Matt. There's the physicality, the blindness; we're making a show about emotion and turmoil. We're meeting a man who believes in law and justice by day and at night takes the law into his own hands and decides what justice is himself," he reveals. "He's battling with that concept. We see a bit of Matt's father and who he wanted Matt to be. That's something that plays on Matt's mind a lot as well." Cox of course made a name for himself in Boardwalk Empire, and when one fan asked him how working on Daredevil differs to that HBO series, he revealed a little about how the series will play out in terms of being almost like a 13-hour movie for viewers. "Well, compared to a weekly show - we realized, ending with a cliffhanger is pointless. 'Oh, what happened?' and you click a button and find out! So I think more than anything else, it will feel like a 13 hour movie!" What do you think?