With just over 3 weeks until the April 10th release date of Daredevil on Netflix, the question of whether or not we would get to see Matt Murdock suit up in his classic red attire had gone unanswered. Attempting to put fans at ease, Marvel Television heads and Daredevil showrunners spoke with Comics Continuum about the evolution of Matt’s outfit.

Former Daredevil artist and current chief creative officer at Marvel, Joe Quesada had this to say on the how it could logically work in the real world:

We had to come up with a logic for it. It was a delicate balance, because the stories we’re telling are so real-world. Matt starts out in a homemade outfit that develops slowly. As he starts getting the crap kicked out of him on the streets, he adds padding little by little.

Continuing on the topic realism, Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb elaborated:

We couldn’t just come out of the box with a guy running around in a red devil costume. We needed to be able to make sure that it looked not like a costume, but a uniform.


Showrunner Steven DeKnight on how-to get to a point where the red suit works:

He always wore a black mask that was tied in the back. We went through a lot of different versions and did a lot of R&D before settling on something. If you watch very closely, you’ll see the outfit evolve subtly into what we call the black ninja suit. The mask changes. He starts wearing protective pads. Eventually it morphs into the classic suit, because he wouldn’t be Daredevil without it. Getting there is part of the fun. The idea was to back the story up to the point before Matt is Daredevil. Then we could take him to a place where some version of the red suit works in a grounded world. The solution is very exciting and makes complete sense.

Costume designer Stephanie Maslansky on the trickiness of pulling off the look:

There was definitely a history and mythology that needed to be adhered to, but it also had to seem authentic. It needed to be made of things that anyone could buy on the street, on the Internet or in an army-navy store. We wanted something that looked militaristic and functional, but also dramatic and sexy. It was really tricky to make it both be practical and look, as Joe Quesada likes to say, ‘really bad-ass’.

You can check out our complete coverage on the upcoming Daredevil series, as well as our breakdown of the first trailer and a link to the second trailer.

Source: Comics Continuum