Drew Goddard Announced as Daredevil Showrunner
Marvel officially
announced that Drew Goddard will be the showrunner for the upcoming live-action
Daredevil television show that will kick off the new partnership between Marvel and Netflix in 2015. Additionally, Goddard will write and direct the debut episode, which Marvel states will set “the tone and look for the show.” So Goddard will have a huge impact on what the
Daredevil show will feel and look like, and by extension an impact on the shows of the others characters.
The Netflix series featuring Daredevil will be 13 episodes, presumably all available for streaming at once in the style of Netflix’s previous original programming, like
House of Cards and
Orange is the New Black. Following this series, there will be three similar series featuring the characters Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage (in that order). All of the series will be interrelated and set in the same Hell’s Kitchen section of New York City in the Marvel Universe. The culmination of these series will be a team-up miniseries called
The Defenders.
All indications are that these series will function more on the street-level crime and superheroes who try to end it. So far, the Marvel Cinematic and Television Universe has not been especially dark, though that may change on these series. Daredevil was one of the first characters featured in the more adult-oriented “Marvel Knights” imprint. So tone and subject matter will be important on this series. Showrunner has increasingly become an important position on dramatic shows. Vince Gilligan and Kurt Sutter created hit shows, but even series like
The Walking Dead have been enormously influenced by their showrunners, such as Frank Darabont and Scott Gimple (the current showrunner).
Drew Goddard has a long list of credits on geek-centric projects, so his selection makes sense. He has written for the television series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Angel,
Alias, and
Lost. He has also written the movies
Cloverfield,
The Cabin in the Woods (co-written with Joss Whedon), and the adaption for
World War Z. His only directing credit so far was
The Cabin in the Woods. Most of those projects are pretty well- regarded, though he was often working with either Whedon or J.J. Abrams. It will be interesting to see what Goddard does in the first television series of his own – though he will no doubt have a great deal of advice/demands from the Marvel brain trust.
Drew Goddard has a long list of credits on geek-centric projects, so his selection makes sense. He has written for the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Alias, and Lost. He has also written the movies Cloverfield, The Cabin in the Woods (co-written with Joss Whedon), and the adaption for World War Z. His only directing credit so far was The Cabin in the Woods. Most of those projects are pretty well- regarded, though he was often working with either Whedon or J.J. Abrams. It will be interesting to see what Goddard does in the first television series of his own – though he will no doubt have a great deal of advice/demands from the Marvel brain trust. 
