DAREDEVIL and JESSICA JONES Get Showrunners


We're one step closer to Jessica Jones dropping f-bombs on TV.

One of the curious things about last week's ginormous announcement of four Marvel Comics series coming to Netflix was the lack of creative names attached to each project.  Despite the lack of official confirmation from Marvel, it appears two of the showrunners have been found.

The Wrap announced yesterday that Drew Goddard is in negotiations to write and executive produce Daredevil, the first 13-episode series in 2015.  Goddard's impressive resume includes writing and producing Lost and Alias for ABC, and writing for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.  He also helped write this summer's World War Z and directed the horror movie The Cabin in the Woods. 

The article also cited a previous Collider interview with Goddard earlier this year, where he expressed his interest in the character.  "You’re talking to a guy who had quotes from Daredevil painted on his wall while growing up," said Goddard.  "Even when I was eighteen, I still had the blood red door with the, ‘I have shown him that a man without hope is a man without fear.’  That was what I loved and so it’s the sort of thing that if we can find the right project, I would love to do it."

This will be the third live-action adaptation of Daredevil, after the character first appeared on television in the 1989 TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (played by Rex Smith) and the more notable 2003 film Daredevil starring Ben Affleck that was directed by Mark Steven Johnson.

Meanwhile, Deadline revealed later that same day Melissa Rosenberg is attached to be the writer and executive producer for Jessica Jones, which will be the next to air after Daredevil.  Rosenberg, best known for the screenplay for the movie Twilight, was previously asked to create a drama series on the character three years ago, when the project was called AKA Jessica Jones and was at ABC.

The series will be the character's first depiction in live-action.  Created by Brian Bendis and Michael Gaydos, Jessica Jones first appeared in the Marvel MAX series Alias in 2001.  The character is a former superhero called Jewel (and briefly Knightress) who fell victim to the supervillain Purple Man's mind control, became traumatized and demoralized as a result, then gave up superheroics to form a detective agency called Alias Private Investigations.  Jessica later returned to superheroics as Power Woman and joined the New Avengers, only to give it up once again to take care of her and Luke Cage's daughter, Danielle.


Posted on November 13, 2013 .