WATCH: Netflix's Daredevil promises to be dark and gritty

“Bless me, father, for I have sinned.... It’s been too long since my last confession.”

 

After 12 long years of staying out of the live-action spotlight, Marvel Comics’ scarlet-suited, billy club-brandishing Man Without Fear is reborn in “Marvel's Daredevil,” an all-new Netflix series starring Charlie Cox in the title role. 

 

Marvel Studios has unveiled the first official full-length trailer for the highly anticipated web television show.

 

 

Guardian devil

 

First swinging into action in the pages of April 1964’s Daredevil #1, blind lawyer Matthew Murdock is a celebrated champion of the courtroom by day, and a justice-seeking vigilante who operates outside the law by night. 

 

Audiences last caught a glimpse of the sightless street Avenger in 2003, in 20th Century Fox’s “Daredevil” film. The movie, which featured Ben Affleck as Murdock/Daredevil, met mixed reviews and lukewarm reception, and the property was effectively shelved for many years. 

 

While talks persisted of a darker, grittier reboot that adhered more closely to the source material in terms of tone and feel, Fox ultimately lost the license after a decade, forcing them to hand over the rights to Marvel Studios.

 

Born again

 

The trailer gives the world its first look at Murdock and his superhero alter-ego in action, and is narrated by Cox himself as he confesses to a priest and asks for forgiveness for “what [he’s] about to do.”

 

Particularly interesting is the fact that this interpretation of Daredevil doesn’t appear to be wearing his iconic red suit (or at least, not initially); rather, he will start his costumed career clad in the black, urban ninja-style “proto-costume” he donned in the Daredevil: Man Without Fear comic book miniseries.

 

The first few clips of “Marvel’s Daredevil” - which were actual sequences from the series, according to reports - were shown at the 2014 New York Comic Con, where the show received praise from fans and members of the press alike for being gritty and “dark, so very dark.” 

 

Marvel Knights

 

“Marvel’s Daredevil” is the first in a series of Netflix-exclusive Marvel shows. Taking full advantage of the tried and tested “shared universe” formula that made the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which includes “Iron Man,” “Thor,” “Captain America,” and the upcoming “Avengers: Age of Ultron”) a meteoric success, Marvel and Netflix are developing three other web TV series (“Jessica Jones,” “Luke Cage,” and “Iron Fist”) set in the same continuity as the MCU films and television shows, as well as a miniseries, “The Defenders,” which is expected to bring the four Marvel Netflix stars together.

 

The court will be in session for “Marvel’s Daredevil” on April 10, the day of the full 13-episode first season’s release on Netflix. Joining Cox in “Marvel’s Daredevil” are Elden Henson as Murdock’s law firm partner and best friend Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, Deborah Ann Woll as love interest Karen Page, Scott Glenn as the mysterious Stick, Vondie Curtis-Hall as investigative reporter Ben Urich, and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. — TJD, GMA News