The Wild Reason Ben Affleck Didn’t Appear As Daredevil In 2005’s Spin-Off Disaster

Despite being a pre-MCUDaredevil spin-off, Affleck’s Matt Murdock did not appear in 2005’s disastrous Elektra for one wild reason. Before his ill-fated tenure as the DCEU’s Batman, Ben Affleck cut his teeth on superhero movies with 2003’s Daredevil, which sadly did not fare much better critically than his efforts as Batman, and is regarded as one of the more divisive live-action Daredevil adaptations. Even worse, however, was the response to the spin-off movie Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner in the titular role. Despite the characters being inexorably tied to one another, however, Daredevil was conspicuously absent from Elektra.

Elektra was a largely lambasted attempt by Fox to continue the Daredevil story. Despite Elektra’s apparent death during the events of Daredevil, Elektra began with her resurrection by Stick. Stick is another character tied closely to the Daredevil mythos, having trained both Matt Murdock and Elektra Natchios, and played a central role in Daredevil’s lauded stint in the Charlie Cox’s Daredevil Netflix show. His presence and Garner’s star power made the absence of Affleck’s Daredevil more noticeable. He was initially supposed to appear in a cameo role, but the scene was cut for an unusual reason.

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Why Elektra Didn’t Include Ben Affleck’s Daredevil

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner went public with their relationship in 2004, following the release of Daredevil in 2003, and Garner also pushed for Affleck to join Elektra. The studio reportedly resolved to omit Ben Affleck entirely out of fear that their relationship would negatively impact the movie.

This is not without precedent, as it was believed that Affleck’s public relationship with Jennifer Lopez just a couple of years prior negatively impacted Gigli and Jersey Girl, in which they both starred. Both movies came out during their very public romance and breakup, which garnered a significant amount of negative press. As such, the decision to avoid a prospective repeat of this seemingly was a not inconsiderable influence for Elektra‘s cameo cut, even if it didn’t prevent the movie from flopping in cinemas.

Why Ben Affleck’s Daredevil Being Absent From Elektra May Have Been A Good Thing

Avoiding a press circuit that may focus on the public life of its main stars may have been a wise business decision on the face of it, but a rushed production and poor writing were enough to spell doom for Elektra regardless. Garner’s performance was seen to be a highlight that could not avoid the negative impact of these surrounding circumstances. Having Ben Affleck’s Daredevil appear would have been just as ineffectual in staving off this disaster, and would have only cemented the largely negative response to Affleck’s short-lived tenure as the Man Without Fear.

Affleck has expressed regret for Daredevil, which scored middling-to-poor reviews, despite his performance being among the highlights. This spurred him to become the DCEU’s Batman, which Affleck had hoped would rectify his connection to the superhero genre. This is the role with which he is more commonly associated than Matt Murdock, given that Affleck has appeared as the Caped Crusader five times. Affleck avoiding Elektra, therefore, was conducive to him distancing himself from the role of Daredevil.