Daredevil w/ Ed Brubaker (Classic)

Summary of Daredevil w/ Ed Brubaker (Classic)

by Earwolf and Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas

54m•June 2, 2026
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Overview of Daredevil w/ Ed Brubaker (Classic)

In this How Did This Get Made? episode, Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas, and special guest Ed Brubaker break down the 2003 Daredevil movie in both its theatrical and director’s cut forms. The conversation mixes film criticism, comic-book lore, and genuine surprise that June emotionally connected with the movie’s romance and blind-superhero premise, while Ed explains where the film diverges from the comics and why the director’s cut is still a messy but more coherent version.

Main Topics Discussed

The movie’s biggest strengths and failures

  • The hosts agree the movie was a financial success but a creative mess.
  • Main complaints:
    • sluggish pacing
    • awkward, slow fight choreography
    • muddled plot structure
    • too many competing storylines
    • a villain-heavy movie that still feels underdeveloped
  • The film is described as feeling like:
    • a “shitty video game version” of a better movie
    • a half-finished puzzle
    • a movie that’s more interesting to talk about than to watch

The theatrical cut vs. the director’s cut

  • Ed watched both versions back-to-back and says the director’s cut is better, but still overloaded.
  • The director’s cut adds:
    • a fuller detective/lawyer storyline
    • a Coolio subplot
    • more Matt/Foggy legal work
    • more Kingpin involvement
    • more context for Matt’s senses and internal life
  • The theatrical cut, by contrast, feels chopped up, overly rushed in some areas, and oddly focused on the romance.

Comic-book accuracy and big deviations

Ed provides a lot of context from the comics:

  • In the comics, Daredevil’s origin is different:
    • he saves an old man from a truck
    • his father does not cause the accident
  • Elektra’s background is also changed:
    • in the comics, she is Matt’s college girlfriend and later becomes an assassin/ninja
    • the movie compresses and alters this heavily
  • Bullseye’s look and behavior are discussed as mostly faithful in spirit, if not always in execution.
  • The hosts repeatedly note how many comic elements are stitched together without clean integration.

Fight scenes, visual style, and “comic book” aesthetics

  • Everyone piles on the slow, awkward fight scenes.
  • The movie’s visuals are criticized for:
    • looking like cheap studio street sets
    • having noticeable green-screen edges
    • relying on dramatic Dutch angles in odd places
  • The courtroom scenes and rooftop scenes are singled out as especially “comic-booky,” but not always in a good way.

Daredevil’s powers and blindness

June, unexpectedly, becomes the most emotionally engaged with the character:

  • She loves that his superpower is rooted in disability.
  • She responds strongly to the idea that he is vulnerable yet physically gifted.
  • The hosts discuss the mechanics of his radar sense and how the movie emphasizes his blindness repeatedly.
  • Ed explains that the film adds a lot of “blindness” reminders, sometimes clumsily, but that the character is inherently compelling.

Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, and casting chatter

  • The hosts discuss Affleck’s performance, which they ultimately defend as not bad.
  • A notable behind-the-scenes detail: he was dating Jennifer Lopez while filming.
  • They also mention how Affleck later said the Daredevil costume felt humiliating and made him never want to play a superhero again.
  • Casting trivia comes up, including interest from actors like Matt Damon, Ed Norton, Guy Pearce, and Vin Diesel being considered for roles.

Bullseye as the scene-stealer

  • Colin Farrell’s Bullseye gets a lot of attention as the movie’s most entertaining element.
  • The hosts enjoy how absurd and over-the-top he is:
    • paperclips as weapons
    • the peanut kill
    • touching the bullseye on his forehead like a fetish object
    • the rattlesnake-like sound effects
  • They agree he feels like a cartoon inside a movie that otherwise takes itself too seriously.

The romance angle

  • June strongly defends the love story between Matt and Elektra.
  • She argues that the emotional center of the movie is the romance, not the action.
  • The others note the director’s cut apparently includes more romance, while the theatrical cut strips some of it out.
  • The rooftop, rain, and coffee-shop scenes become a running thread in the discussion.

Notable Insights from Ed Brubaker

  • Daredevil is a great character for film, but this version tried to include too much history at once.
  • The movie would likely work better if it focused on one clean story instead of mixing:
    • origin story
    • legal drama
    • romance
    • Kingpin crime plot
    • Elektra arc
    • Bullseye set pieces
  • Ed suggests a more grounded, street-level version could have worked much better.
  • He also explains that many visual moments are lifted from the comics but lose impact when ripped out of context.

Final Verdict

  • Paul and Jason: mostly negative; they find the movie dull, inconsistent, and badly paced.
  • Ed Brubaker: appreciates the source material and says the director’s cut is the better version, but still flawed.
  • June: the surprise champion of the film, genuinely moved by the romance and the character’s emotional core.
  • Overall takeaway: Daredevil is a fascinating failure—messy, overstuffed, and often absurd, but full of ideas that hint at a much better movie.