While Kevin Smith has long been established as one of the most geek-friendly filmmakers alive, all one needs to do is take a glance at his filmography to notice that he really hasn’t spent too much of his directing career in the superhero realm. In fact, Smith’s only comics-related directorial project to date is a 2016 episode of The CW’s The Flash series.
With Smith being an outspoken fan of the genre - down to having written for both Marvel and DC, as well as owning his comic book store - it really does seem strange that he hasn’t directly contributed more to the world of superhero films and TV. One person who agrees with that sentiment wholeheartedly and plans to do something about it, is Smith himself.
During an interview with IGN, Smith revealed that he wants to direct an episode of Marvel/Netflix’s Daredevil and is actively “campaigning” for the job:
As Smith points out, he has indeed written for Daredevil on the comic page, which would seemingly make him a natural fit to work on the character’s popular streaming series. While one might not think Smith’s signature brand of lowbrow humor and pop culture references would necessarily fit in with Daredevil’s often dark and gloomy TV tone, he likely respects Marvel enough to tone down the jokes to make his contribution fit in to the established universe. Of course, that’s presuming that Marvel Studios would allow Smith to also write the episode he directed - something he didn’t have the opportunity to do with his Flash season 2 episode.
“I feel very at home in that Flash world, so much so that I’d love to do the others. I even told [Marvel chief creative officer] Joe Quesada - we worked on Daredevil together back in the day, I wrote it, he drew it - I said, ‘Dude, I want to direct Daredevil, man. That’d be wild to be able to do it in real-life - let’s co-direct it, that’d be cool, just like we did the book. We could co-direct an episode and then, like, take the passion from the page to the screen.”
Outside of Daredevil season 3, Smith would also love an opportunity to contribute to Marvel’s The Defenders miniseries, ostensibly the climax to the individual streaming tales of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. He expounded on this desire elsewhere in the IGN interview:
While Smith ends that comment with his usual self-deprecating humor, his sentiment is probably correct. Despite his devoted fanbase and generally positive reputation within the comic book world, Smith has never been a man known for working with big budgets, and has arguably directed just as many box-office misses as hits in the last couple of decades. Working on The Defenders could very well be Smith’s one realistic shot at helming a multi-hero team-up project for either Marvel or DC, making it easy to see why he’s so keen on the idea. It’ll be interesting to see if Marvel Studios executives feel as positively about the prospect.
“If I can get a piece of that Defenders mini-series holy st, could you imagine, dude? Because then you’re working with multiple suits at once, that’d be phenomenal. Just doing a mini Avengers - even one episode of that run of Defenders is like, ‘oh, I get to exercise any interest I had in Avengers but doing it on a scale where nobody’s betting $200 million on the guy that made fkin’ Yoga Hosers.”
Daredevil season 1 & 2 and Jessica Jones season 1 are now available on Netflix. Luke Cage season 1 will arrive on September 30th, 2016. Release dates for Jessica Jones season 2, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher spinoff on Netflix have not yet been announced. Daredevil season 3 has yet to be confirmed.
Source: IGN
