Although Daredevil Season 2 isn’t heading our way until 2016, it’s already clear the Netflix Marvel series is touting an impressive cast, from returning characters like the titular hero himself (duh) and his legal allies to new players like The Punisher and maybe Bullseye as well. Now a new member of Daredevil’s comic book family will be stopping by, and needless to say, she’s going to take Matt Murdock’s world by storm.It’s been announced that French actress Elodie Yung has been cast to play the ninja assassin Elektra in Daredevil’s sophomore outing.
The MCU’s Elektra is described by Marvel as a “mysterious woman from Matt Murdock’s past whose dangerous and exotic ways may be more than he can handle.” Yung will be the second person to play Elektra in live-action, following Jennfer Garner’s performances in the 2003 Daredevil film and the 2005 Elektra spinoff. Yung’s previous work includes District 13: Ultimatum, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and next year’s Gods of Egypt. This is what Marvel Head of Television Jeph Loeb had to say about Yung’s casting.
After a worldwide search, we found in Elodie the perfect actress to embody both Elektra’s impressive and deadly physicality, as well as her psychological complexity. Paired with Charlie as Matt Murdock, the two will bring one of the most beloved and tumultuous comic book relationships to life with all the accompanying sparks and spectacular action sequences the show is known for.
Former showrunner Steven DeKnight first mentioned the possibility of her dropping in on Hell’s Kitchen shortly before Season 1 began, and last month, leaked audition videos confirmed Marvel was searching for someone to play her. How Elektra will be involved in Season 2 is unclear, but considering that the blind superhero is already dealing with a gun-toting vigilante bent on killing every criminal in Hell’s Kitchen, her coming back into his life will undoubtedly boost his high stress levels. As for Yung, she already wore a similar outfit to Elektra’s as Jinx in G.I. Joe: Retaliation (as seen above), so one would imagine her outfit for the show won’t be too different.
Similar to the bullet-riddled Daredevil logo that accompanied Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle casting last month, Marvel also included this poster of one of Elektra’s sai pinning a newspaper clipping to a wall.
An old friend is coming to Hell's Kitchen: http://bit.ly/elektram #Daredevil #ElektraPosted by Marvel's Daredevil on Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Elektra was created in 1981 by Frank Miller as Matt’s former girlfriend who trained as an assassin so she could seek vengeance for her father’s murder. Although killed at the hands of Bullseye (perhaps we’ll get a repeat of that in the series), Elektra was later resurrected and gone on to become a superhero in her own right. Elektra was teased during Season 1 as the Greek girl that Matt was seeing during his law school days, but unless you’re a hardcore comic book fan, the reference probably flew over your head.
Daredevil Season 2 will premiere on Netflix sometime in 2016.
