Weird Reason 20th Century Fox Censored Elektra's Original Death in Daredevil
Apparently, the studio was quick to trim Daredevil scenes in pursuit of a PG-13 rating.
Thanks to Spider-Man and She-Hulk, Charlie Cox 's Daredevil is back in the public eye, and his longtime fans couldn't be happier about that and the announcement of the upcoming revival, Daredevil: Born Again.
But long before Charlie Cox became everyone's favorite man without fear, Ben Affleck was trying his hand at the role.
Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, 2003's Daredevil was widely considered a flop. Even the main star and the director each admitted in separate interviews that the movie was flawed.
It is not entirely clear whether the movie lacked creative freedom or simply did not have enough screen time for all the different characters it is packed with, but the R-rated director's cut released a year later received more positive reviews.
The cut was 30 minutes longer than the theatrical version and had several deleted scenes, including the full version of Elektra's death.
Since Johnson drew heavily from Frank Miller's comic books, Elektra and Kingpin became the film's protagonists alongside Daredevil.
Unfortunately, this also meant that Elektra played by Jennifer Garner met a gruesome end at the hands of Colin Farrell 's Bullseye.
According to the director, the full scene was too "graphic" for 20th Century Fox's taste, and the studio was adamant that it be censored for the final cut.
But as it tuns out, the final version approved by the studio was in fact missing just one detail. Johnson said that in both versions of the scene, which repeats Miller's comic frame by frame, Bullseye slits Electra's throat with a playing card before impaling her with her own sai.
"The difference is that [in the theatrical version] he doesn't take the long kiss on the lip and pull her lip back," the director recalled.
Apparently this little detail was enough to get the scene censored, and the director still finds it weird.
"It was okay to stab her, you just can't stab her and kiss her," Johnson said with a shrug.
It seems that the kiss-and-kill approach didn't sit well with Fox because of their obsession with a PG-13 rating that could broaden the potential audience and increase viewership numbers.
Fortunately, fans have a director's cut that fully embraces Johnson's idea.