110 Fun Facts About Daredevil

How was Matt Murdock, the future Daredevil, blinded as a child?

A chemical accident: he shoved a pedestrian out of a runaway truck's path, and radioactive liquid from its load splashed his eyes, blinding him but sharpening every other sense.

Why is Matt Murdock's father, a boxer, murdered in Daredevil's origin story?

He refused to throw a fight because Matt was watching from the crowd, so the gangster who managed him had him killed soon after; avenging him becomes Daredevil's first mission.

Which New York neighbourhood is Daredevil's home turf?

Hell's Kitchen is a real Manhattan district, also called Clinton; Matt's father pushed him to study so he could escape it, and he grew up to protect it instead.

Who created Daredevil in 1964?

Stan Lee and Bill Everett are the credited creators, though Jack Kirby had already drawn the first cover and seems to have helped design the first costume; Everett had created Namor the Sub-Mariner in 1939.

Daredevil's heightened senses were inspired by a co-creator's legally blind daughter, who found which of her own senses sharper?

Hearing: she said she could tell who was approaching by sound alone, and she and her father 'took that and played with it' while inventing the hero.

What colours was Daredevil's original 1964 costume?

Black, yellow and red. The busy acrobat-style suit lasted just six issues before a new artist swapped it for the simpler, more devilish all-red tights that stuck.

Who was Matt's blind martial-arts mentor in the comics?

Stick. The grizzled sensei made such a mark that the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles spoofed him as Splinter, their rat ninja master.

Which writer-artist's early-1980s run brought film noir and ninjas to Daredevil and made the title a hit?

Frank Miller. When he arrived as penciller, Marvel's money men wanted the low-selling book cancelled; his editor-in-chief kept it alive, arguing the 'Miller kid' would make it catch on.

Which writer introduced the Daredevil villain Bullseye in 1976?

Marv Wolfman, co-creator of Blade and the New Teen Titans, later asked off the title, saying he never found the thing that made Daredevil his.

In the 1986 comics storyline 'Born Again', who sells Daredevil's secret identity for drug money?

Karen Page. Matt's former secretary, by then a heroin addict, traded the secret for a fix; it reached the Kingpin, who froze Murdock's finances and left him homeless.

Which villain with dissociative identity disorder did Ann Nocenti introduce?

Typhoid Mary. Ann Nocenti said she wanted to shatter every female stereotype into fragments yet keep all the pieces in one woman: sweet, shy Mary and violent Typhoid.

Which filmmaker wrote 'Guardian Devil', the 1998 Marvel Knights relaunch drawn by Joe Quesada?

Kevin Smith. The Clerks director had Daredevil care for a newborn who may or may not be the Antichrist, a story that grew out of his own struggles with his faith.

Who first played Daredevil in live action, in the 1989 TV film The Trial of the Incredible Hulk?

Rex Smith. His Daredevil wore plain black rather than red, and the TV film doubled as a pilot for a Daredevil series that never got made.

Who plays Matt Murdock in the 2003 Daredevil film?

Ben Affleck. A lifelong fan who had already written the foreword to a Daredevil collection, he got a part all three of the others had been offered or had circled.

Who wrote and directed the 2003 Daredevil film?

Mark Steven Johnson. Matt Damon later said he passed on the lead because he didn't quite believe in the script or the director; Johnson went on to make Ghost Rider.

Who plays Elektra Natchios in the 2003 Daredevil film?

Jennifer Garner. The plan, as the director recalls it, was to follow her 2005 Elektra spin-off with a second Daredevil if it succeeded; it didn't, and the sequel never came.

Who plays the Kingpin in the 2003 Daredevil film?

Michael Clarke Duncan. His first reaction was that the Kingpin had always been white; the director said the studio already thought him the best actor for it, then asked him to add 40 pounds to his 290.

Which Irish actor plays the assassin Bullseye in the 2003 Daredevil film?

Colin Farrell. The director let him keep his own accent and gave him a pile of the comics to study; he called Bullseye too over-the-top a showman for method acting.

Why does the 2003 Daredevil film's Ben Urich work for the New York Post, not the Daily Bugle?

Sony held the Bugle rights. The fictional paper came bundled with another Marvel hero's film licence, which is said to be why the film gave Urich a job at a real tabloid instead.

Which future Marvel Studios director plays Matt Murdock's best friend and partner in the 2003 Daredevil film?

Jon Favreau. The film's director recalls Seth Rogen reading for the part too and seeming far too young; it was a first Marvel film for the man who went on to direct Iron Man.

Where was the 2003 Daredevil film mostly shot, despite its Manhattan setting?

Downtown Los Angeles. The shoot was first slated for Vancouver, but it ended up on Los Angeles streets standing in for New York, where almost the whole story takes place.

Which band has two songs on the 2003 Daredevil film's soundtrack, including its debut single?

Evanescence. 'Bring Me to Life' and 'My Immortal' are both on it; the label had pushed for a male co-vocalist, and the first song's guest rap was a compromise Amy Lee never wanted.

Which rapper's subplot was restored in the R-rated director's cut of the 2003 Daredevil film?

Coolio. He plays a murder suspect Matt represents in court, a whole storyline that vanished when the director was told to cut half an hour from the cinema version.

On which holiday did the 2003 Daredevil film open in American cinemas?

Valentine's Day. The director had sold it to the studio as a love story; it topped that weekend's box office and went on to about $179 million worldwide.

Which studio released the 2003 Daredevil film?

20th Century Fox. Fox first optioned the hero, let the rights lapse and watched him go to Columbia, then got him back as distributor when New Regency bought the rights.

Who plays Matt Murdock in Netflix's Daredevil and in Daredevil: Born Again?

Charlie Cox. Marvel's Joe Quesada picked him out two years early, while another studio still owned the hero's screen rights, even though Cox had never read the comics.

Who plays Wilson Fisk in Netflix's Daredevil and in Born Again?

Vincent D'Onofrio. His crime boss is never called 'Kingpin' in the first season: the showrunner felt naming both hero and villain in the final minutes would be 'a little too much'.

Who created the Netflix Daredevil series, with Steven S. DeKnight as first-season showrunner?

Drew Goddard. He wrote the first two episodes, then stepped down to direct a Sinister Six film that was never made, staying on the series only as a consultant.

Which actress plays Matt's secretary-turned-partner in Netflix's Daredevil and in Born Again?

Deborah Ann Woll. She set out to play both of the comics' versions of the character at once: a kind soul who is 'a little bit attracted to danger' and goes looking for it.

In Netflix's Daredevil, Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple blends the comics' Temple with which other character?

Night Nurse. The scripts first used that name outright, until word came back that Marvel's film side had plans for her, so the show borrowed a more obscure comics name.

Who joined season two of Netflix's Daredevil as Frank Castle, the Punisher?

Jon Bernthal. The three others all played the Punisher in earlier films; Bernthal's version was spun off into a series of his own, and he later came back in Born Again.

Who plays Elektra in Netflix's Daredevil?

Élodie Yung. Showrunner Doug Petrie called her Elektra 'the best bad girlfriend you can possibly have', because she lets out the wild side that Matt is always taming.

Which agency does Benjamin 'Dex' Poindexter work for when he is introduced in season three of Netflix's Daredevil?

The FBI. Dex is a sharpshooting agent whom Wilson Fisk manipulates into putting on a copy of the Daredevil suit, to wreck the real hero's reputation.

Which season one episode of Netflix's Daredevil ends with a single-take hallway fight?

Cut Man. The brawl was scripted as one unbroken shot, and the showrunner called it probably the season's most complicated action scene because of the way it had to be filmed.

Which character in Netflix's Daredevil builds Matt's armoured red suit at the end of season one?

Melvin Potter. The troubled workshop engineer had been forced to make armoured clothing for Wilson Fisk; in the comics he is one of Daredevil's costumed foes, the Gladiator.

Who plays Matt's best friend and partner in Netflix's Daredevil?

Elden Henson. He auditioned on his phone and, as a co-star tells it, held it the wrong way round, so everyone watching had to tilt their head, a slip said to have helped win him the part.

Which crossover miniseries did Netflix's Daredevil lead into in 2017?

The Defenders. The team-up was the plan from the outset: a 2013 deal between Marvel and Netflix ordered four solo series, with Daredevil first, to build up to it.

Netflix cancelled Daredevil days after its showrunner pitched what?

Season four. Erik Oleson tweeted that he had 'just pitched' it, adding 'Fingers crossed!'; thirteen days later, a little over a month after season three arrived, Netflix dropped the show.

In which 2021 film did the Netflix Daredevil first return for Marvel Studios?

Spider-Man: No Way Home. The comeback began with a surprise phone call from Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige in June 2020; the actor at first suspected he was being put on.

On which service did Daredevil: Born Again premiere in March 2025?

Disney+. It arrived by the long way round: Marvel shot fewer than half of a planned 18 episodes, judged that the show wasn't working, let its head writers go and started again.

What office does Wilson Fisk win in Daredevil: Born Again?

Mayor of New York City. One of his first moves in office is a crackdown on masked vigilantes, and he sits down with Matt in a diner to warn him off becoming Daredevil again.

Whose murder by Bullseye at the start of Born Again leads Matt to give up being Daredevil?

Foggy Nelson. As his friend's heartbeat fades, Matt hurls the killer off a rooftop, breaking his own rule against killing; that guilt is what makes him hang up the mask.

In Daredevil: Born Again, Heather Glenn eventually takes on the mantle of which masked serial killer?

Muse. The killer stalks and nearly murders her in season one; she is haunted by visions of him all through season two, which ends with her putting on his mask.

Which vigilante, powered by a mystical amulet, does Murdock defend in court in Born Again?

Hector Ayala, the White Tiger. Murdock wins him an acquittal over a policeman's death, only for Hector to be shot dead soon afterwards by a gunman wearing the Punisher's symbol.

Who took over as showrunner of Born Again in the late-2023 creative overhaul?

Dario Scardapane. A writer on Netflix's The Punisher, he took over after Marvel watched the half-shot series, decided it wasn't working and let its head writers go.

In the comics' 'Born Again', the nun who takes in a badly beaten Matt Murdock turns out to be which relative?

His mother. Sister Maggie had been gone from his life since he was a baby; when Matt asks whether she is his mother she denies it, a lie that only confirms it.

Which artist introduced Daredevil's standard red costume, in issue #7?

Wally Wood. Two issues into his run he swapped the fussy original costume for plain red tights, the more devilish look that has lasted ever since.

What third identity did Matt adopt in the 1960s to protect his secret?

A wisecracking twin brother, Mike. Matt made him up after his friends read a letter naming him as Daredevil, passed 'Mike' off as the real hero, and finally had to kill him off.

Which city did Daredevil move to in the early 1970s, when the Black Widow became his crime-fighting partner?

San Francisco. Writer Gerry Conway had fallen for the city on a visit, and liked the idea of a blind hero leaping across the rooftops that gave James Stewart vertigo.

Which clan of ninja assassins has been one of Daredevil's most persistent enemies since the early 1980s?

The Hand. The clan made such an impression that within three years two young cartoonists had spoofed it as the Foot, sworn enemies of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

In Brian Michael Bendis's run, who is the blind woman Matt Murdock meets and marries?

Milla Donovan. Daredevil pulls her from the path of a truck; she then recognises her rescuer's voice in Matt Murdock, whom a newspaper had already named as the man in the mask.

In Ed Brubaker's run, which friend is revealed to be masquerading as Daredevil while Matt is jailed?

Danny Rand, Iron Fist. He put on the red suit so that the press and public would see Daredevil at large and doubt that the man sitting in a cell could be the hero.

How does Charles Soule's run explain Murdock getting his secret identity back?

The Purple Man's children wiped memories. Saved from their father by Daredevil, they repaid him by using his mind-control machine to make the whole world forget who is under the mask.

In Chip Zdarsky's 2019 run, why does Daredevil temporarily give up crime-fighting?

He accidentally killed a thief. Matt later turns himself in and serves his sentence still masked as Daredevil, while Elektra takes over the costume and the patrols.

Saladin Ahmed's 2023 volume begins with Matt Murdock reborn in what role?

A Catholic priest. Matt had ended the previous run dead and trapped in Hell; months later he reappears alive, seemingly reborn, as a man of the cloth.

The Kingpin, Daredevil's arch-enemy, first appeared in 1967 as a villain in which other hero's comic?

Spider-Man. Wilson Fisk spent fourteen years as the web-slinger's crime boss before Daredevil's writers borrowed him in 1981 and made him the hero's defining enemy.

How can a person fool Daredevil's ability to tell when someone is lying?

By having a pacemaker. He catches a lie by picking up the jump in a liar's pulse, so a heart kept artificially steady gives him nothing to read; staying calm under pressure can work too.

Matt Murdock's blind man's cane secretly doubles as which Daredevil weapon?

A billy club. The innocent-looking cane hides a cable and grappling hook, which is how a hero who cannot fly gets across the city's rooftops.

Which hero took over Daredevil's patch in 2011, when the comic was briefly retitled 'The Man Without Fear'?

T'Challa. The Black Panther inherited the comic's numbering as well as the beat after Murdock, freed from a demon's possession at the end of the Shadowland saga, left New York.

Which writer's 2011 relaunch gave Daredevil a lighter, swashbuckling style after a decade of darker stories?

Mark Waid. He meant the breezy surface as a mask: his Matt Murdock is hiding a severe depression behind all the swashbuckling, an idea that runs under the whole run.

Which ability lets the blind Daredevil detect the shape and location of objects around him?

Radar sense was toned down by a later writer into a feel for what is close by, an idea he took from the comments of martial artists.

Which Marvel series revived Matt Murdock for a lighter guest spot that its director called its biggest surprise?

She-Hulk let the writers explore a lighter side of the usually brooding hero, and its star Tatiana Maslany described her character and Murdock as best friends.

Which heroes did Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird create partly as a pastiche of Daredevil's early-1980s comics?

The Ninja Turtles mixed several hit comics of the time, also borrowing teenage mutants from The New Mutants and humanlike animals from Cerebus.

After a fall left Bullseye paralysed, a scientist in Japan restored his mobility by lacing his bones with which metal?

Adamantium was implanted with care: his surgeon, Lord Dark Wind, used the special herb treatment that stops the body being destroyed by the implant.

Which Punisher emblem was almost teased in a faceless cameo dropped from season one of Netflix's Daredevil?

A skull would have identified the gunman in a planned closing scene, but Netflix's habit of starting the next episode over the credits made such teasers impractical.

In which 2021 Marvel series, set in New York at Christmas, did the Kingpin of Netflix's Daredevil make his return?

Hawkeye is also where the actor began wearing a fat suit for the role, after gaining 40 pounds to play the crime boss in the Netflix series.

Where does Vanessa Marianna work when Wilson Fisk first meets her in season one of Netflix's Daredevil?

An art gallery employs her as a curator; unlike her comic-book counterpart, she knows of his crimes, accepts them and eventually marries him.

In which 2024 film did the Elektra of the 2003 Daredevil film return, nearly two decades after her own spin-off?

Deadpool & Wolverine also brings word of Daredevil: a line in the film says he was slain by the villain Cassandra Nova.

In season one of Netflix's Daredevil, what does Wilson Fisk use to behead a gangster who interrupts his dinner date?

A car door does it off-screen: the showrunner took his cue from Psycho, letting the sound effects and the aftermath carry the horror.

What did the star of the 2003 Daredevil film wear throughout the shoot that left him effectively blind on set?

Milky contact lenses in a cataract blue left him unable to see, which the director welcomed as an aid to the performance.

Which future Grey's Anatomy star plays the law firm's secretary in the 2003 Daredevil film?

Ellen Pompeo took the small part two years before landing her first major role, as Dr Meredith Grey in the hospital drama.

Which codename does deaf martial artist Maya Lopez use when the Kingpin tricks her into hunting Daredevil?

Echo was eventually convinced of the hero's innocence: the man really responsible for her father's death was the Kingpin himself.

What finally gives Matt Murdock's vigilante the name Daredevil at the end of the Netflix show's first season?

A newspaper headline was chosen because the writers found no natural moment to say the name aloud; for the same reason, nobody calls Fisk the Kingpin that season.

Soon after its 2015 debut, Daredevil became the first Netflix original series to receive which accessibility feature?

Audio description, a narration track that describes the action on screen, was added soon after launch: a fitting first for a show about a blind hero.

With what tool does the young Wilson Fisk kill his abusive father in a flashback in season one of Netflix's Daredevil?

A hammer ended the abuse when Fisk was a boy; he still wears his father's cufflinks, and confesses the killing to the woman he loves decades later.

At which Ivy League university does Matt Murdock meet both Elektra and his future law partner in the comics?

Columbia is where the comics send him, though the Netflix series shot its student flashbacks at Brooklyn College.

Where do federal agents house Wilson Fisk after moving him out of prison in season three of Netflix's Daredevil?

A hotel penthouse was no hardship: a company represented by Fisk's lawyer had bought the building, and Fisk had paid a fellow inmate to attack him so that he would be moved.

Which veteran of The Right Stuff and The Silence of the Lambs plays Matt Murdock's blind mentor in Netflix's Daredevil?

Scott Glenn's character is said to be in his late 90s, and trained the young Murdock before abandoning him for growing too attached.

Which actor, a professed fan of the comic, says he was offered the 2003 Daredevil film's lead but doubted the script?

Matt Damon said he doubted both the script and the director at the time; Vin Diesel was also considered, but chose The Fast and the Furious.

Which Hollywood star's looks were the model for Matt Murdock's face in the influential early-1980s Daredevil comics?

Robert Redford was the face the artist had in mind, while the stories took their suspense and irony from Raymond Chandler's crime novels.

Which Marvel actor and close friend of Daredevil: Born Again's leading man was hired to direct one of its episodes?

Tom Hiddleston, the MCU's Loki, was lined up for a later episode before a creative overhaul in 2023 let the remaining directors go.

Which co-creator of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers gave input on Daredevil and co-designed his first costume?

Jack Kirby was consulted because the Fantastic Four's success in 1961 had left Marvel hunting for new superheroes to meet demand.

Which Daredevil villain is inventor Wilbur Day, who built his armoured suit around a stolen hydraulic ram design?

Stilt-Man towers over the street on telescopic metal legs, and has troubled Thor as well as Daredevil.

Which gangster, the only man willing to sign Matt Murdock's ageing father, has him murdered in Daredevil's origin?

The Fixer never stood trial: confronted by the newly costumed Daredevil, he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Which villain, dying of cancer, turns out to be behind the scheme in the 1998 Daredevil story 'Guardian Devil'?

Mysterio had led Daredevil to believe that a child in his care might be the Antichrist; once exposed, he was left to take his own life.

Which 2010 Marvel crossover sees a demon-possessed Daredevil turn a ruined city block into his own fortress?

Shadowland ends when his allies purge the demon, and a shaken Murdock leaves New York for the miniseries Daredevil: Reborn.

In Charles Soule's Daredevil run, Matt Murdock wins masked heroes the right to do what without revealing who they are?

Testify in court was a precedent he carried up to the Supreme Court; Soule's own background in law lent the storyline its detail.

Which artist illustrated Daredevil's 1986 'Born Again' storyline, then reunited with its writer for Batman: Year One?

David Mazzucchelli did all the artwork himself, contrary to the rumour that he worked over the writer's layouts, and the story made him a star.

In the 2003 Daredevil film, what does the Kingpin leave on a murder victim's body as his calling card?

A single rose was left on the body of Matt Murdock's father, a detail Bullseye reveals during their duel in a church.

Which country's censors banned the 2003 Daredevil film over its violent scenes and rejected the studio's appeal?

Malaysia would not reverse the ban; its deputy prime minister said films were barred for excessive violence or anything that could create chaos in the community.

Which actor from The Matrix and The Sopranos plays reporter Ben Urich in the 2003 Daredevil film?

Joe Pantoliano's Urich works out who the hero really is, then decides at the last minute not to publish the story.

Which Welsh actor, later Gimli in The Lord of the Rings, played Wilson Fisk in The Trial of the Incredible Hulk?

John Rhys-Davies's crime boss faced a team-up of two Marvel heroes, in a TV film spun off from the 1978–1982 series The Incredible Hulk.

Who plays Dex Poindexter, the unstable marksman who becomes Bullseye, in Netflix's Daredevil and in Born Again?

Wilson Bethel read up on psychosis and schizophrenia to prepare, calling Dex a nuanced portrait of a man with serious psychological issues.

Which Martin Scorsese film's antihero did a showrunner cite as an influence on the Punisher of Netflix's Daredevil?

Taxi Driver gave the writers Travis Bickle as a model for an armed loner dispensing his own lethal justice, a subject they called tricky in modern America.

Which HBO crime drama's opening titles led Daredevil's makers to hire the same studio, Elastic, for their own?

True Detective's titles had impressed the creators, and Elastic's pitch of blood-like fluid dripping over an invisible world beat rivals who all proposed sonar maps of the city.

Which actor, son of the late Sopranos star, plays Wilson Fisk's young protégé Daniel Blake in Daredevil: Born Again?

Michael Gandolfini had already played the young Tony Soprano, his father's signature role, in the film The Many Saints of Newark.

Which young superhero's father is the bank official who refuses Matt Murdock a loan in Daredevil: Born Again?

Kamala Khan is the hero Ms. Marvel; her father Yusuf is taken hostage minutes later when robbers storm the bank, and ends up inviting Murdock to dinner.

In season three of Netflix's Daredevil, whom did Dex Poindexter kill as a boy, using his freakishly accurate aim?

His baseball coach was the first victim of that aim; years of therapy then taught Dex to imitate empathy, all of which Fisk reads in a secret file.

Whose video-recorded dying declaration exposes Wilson Fisk at the end of season three of Netflix's Daredevil?

Ray Nadeem, a debt-ridden agent blackmailed into serving Fisk, sent the video to his wife before he was murdered.

Which former prosecutor, played by Nikki M. James, becomes Matt Murdock's new law partner in Daredevil: Born Again?

Kirsten McDuffie came from the comics, where she was introduced in the 2011 relaunch as a fellow lawyer and a new love interest.

Which DC hero, a surgeon who debuted in 1941, beat Daredevil to being a blind superhero in American comics?

Doctor Mid-Nite was a surgeon blinded while operating on a patient targeted by a mobster, who then found that he could see in total darkness.

Which star of The Maltese Falcon did artist John Romita Sr. use as a model for the Kingpin's enormous build?

Sydney Greenstreet shared the honour with fellow heavy Robert Middleton, while the face of the crime boss's wife was drawn from the Dragon Lady of Terry and the Pirates.

Which artist's work on Brian Michael Bendis's Daredevil run gave the Netflix series a template for its look?

Alex Maleev and Bendis treated the title as a crime comic, and their run won the Eisner Award for Best Continuing Series in 2003.

Which action movies did the showrunner of Netflix's Daredevil name as his inspiration for season one's hallway brawl?

The Raid films inspired a sequence that needed seven or eight takes and, apart from a few hidden swaps between actor and stunt double, runs as one unbroken shot.

Which aide to Wilson Fisk is shot with his own gun in season one of Netflix's Daredevil when his phone rings?

James Wesley had cornered the law firm's secretary to blackmail her into silence; the call that distracted him came from Fisk himself.

Whom does Wilson Fisk hurl down an open elevator shaft in the season one finale of Netflix's Daredevil?

Leland Owlsley, Fisk's accountant, had plotted to poison the woman Fisk loved and then tried blackmail; in the comics the character is the villain known as the Owl.

Which construction firm's money-laundering scandal brings Matt Murdock his first client in Netflix's Daredevil?

Union Allied framed its own secretary for a co-worker's murder after she stumbled on the scheme; once cleared, she went to work for her lawyers.

Which weapon, brought into New York in season one of Netflix's Daredevil, turns out to be a young boy?

Black Sky is slain by the hero's old mentor, who had promised to spare lives; season two reveals that Elektra is one as well.

Which Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. villain is named in Netflix's Daredevil as the last boxer Matt Murdock's father fought?

Crusher Creel is one of several quiet ties to the wider MCU: St. Agnes Orphanage, where Murdock grew up, also raised S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Skye.

Whose law firm, seen in Jessica Jones, hires Matt Murdock's partner at the end of season two of Netflix's Daredevil?

Jeri Hogarth is played once again by Carrie-Anne Moss, reprising the role from Jessica Jones, where her firm is Hogarth, Chao, and Benowitz.