The first season of Marvel’s flagship Netflix series, Daredevil, focused its pre-release hype on dark atmosphere and the promise of a grittier, more morally-complicated slice of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - grounded in the shady activities of gangsters, thugs and low-level attorneys in a particularly blighted version of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, inspired by Frank Miller’s landmark Daredevil comics of the 1980s. So viewers were fairly surprised when the series also turned out to be packed with blistering, violent action.
This new promo for Season 2, on the other hand, is done being ambiguous, instead promising fans even bigger action right upfront.
The new promo, which incorporates footage and stills previously seen in trailers and motion posters, assembles a hyper-stylized recreation of a huge brawl involving Daredevil, Elektra, The Punisher and Ninjas presumably belonging to The Hand. Notably, it features all three characters wearing what are presumed to be their “final” outfits for the series, which had previously been obscured or presented in half-assembled form.
At this point, one more promo isn’t likely to be the deciding factor over whether fans tune in for another season with the blind attorney/superhuman vigilante, which has been so heavily hyped and follows a pair of Marvel Netflix offerings (its own first season and Jessica Jones) so acclaimed by critics that at one point it seemed plausible that Marvel might release the new season opposite the debut of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice in theaters. Still, it’s nonetheless impressive to see the series expanding its already impressive action repertoire, which was such a big part of its impact the first time around.
What’s perhaps most impressive is that Marvel has managed to keep a much tighter lid on what the premise and/or “arc” of the new season is actually about. Whereas Season 1 advertised up front that it would follow the conflict between Daredevil and The Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) as a prolonged battle between two self-styled reformers with extremely different ideas about how to remake their particular niche of New York City life, Season 2 has only vaguely alluded to bigger threats looming over the triangular conflict between these three characters. We know that The Punisher is a new rival vigilante willing to go the one extra step toward murder that Daredevil won’t, and we know that Elektra is in town ostensibly because The Hand is making trouble again, but we don’t know to what end or what effect this will have on the supporting cast.
It’s possible that one reason we don’t know the full scope of the story is that it could involve broader-“universe” spoilers that the studio isn’t interested in having spoiled yet. The first season featured Daredevil coming into conflict with Yakuza agents (one of whom turned up in Hand-style ninja garb) getting up to some sort of vaguely-supernatural goings on, plus a Chinese syndicate led by an inhumanly-strong elderly woman of mysterious origin whose activities referenced “The Steel Serpent” - all of which are allusions to characters and entities associated with Iron Fist and Luke Cage, two series building up to the Defenders crossover with Daredevil and Jessica Jones that are still in-production at this time. With Daredevil’s enigmatic teacher Stick (Scott Glenn) returning as well, is it possible that Season 2 will feature an even stronger buildup to future crossovers? We’ll know in just a few days.
Daredevil season 1 and Jessica Jones season 1 are now available on Netflix. Daredevil season 2 will debut on Netflix on March 18th, 2016, followed by Luke Cage season 1 on September 30th, 2016. Release dates for Jessica Jones season 2, Iron Fist, and The Defenders on Netflix have not yet been announced.
Source: Marvel/Netflix
