In a time when superheroes are prevailing, not just on the big screen but on network television as well, there’s no time like the present to bring street level heroes to life. Using films from the 70’s as inspiration to modern day Hell’s Kitchen, Marvel’s Daredevil, Matt Murdock is flawed, dark, but most importantly he’s human.

Executive producer and head of Marvel television Jeff Loeb talked about the choice of tone for the series and told us why it is particularly dark. “It was something that was discussed really in the very beginning, not just about Daredevil but also about all of the Netflix shows that we are gonna be doing. And it really wasn’t a question of whether or not we were gonna do it to do it. It was that Daredevil warrants that kind of storytelling.”

Daredevil being the first of four live-action adventure series, including Marvel’s A.K.A. Jessica Jones, Marvel’s Iron Fist, and Marvel’s Luke Cage, all leading up to the teaming of the title characters in Marvel’s The Defenders. “Marvel starts with story. What is appropriate for that character. What is appropriate for the kind of story that we’re gonna tell on Netflix in thirteen hours… there really wasn’t any other decision to be made. It was what was appropriate for if we were going to tell a story about the rise of a hero and the rise of a criminal empire, we always set out- and I’ve said this before- to do a crime drama first and a super hero story second,” Loeb added.

There was not a specific story adopted from the comics, however showrunner Steven S. DeKnight admitted he was influenced by the stories. “While we didn’t pick any specific story line from the Bronson Daredevil we definitely were spiritually influenced, me especially largely by Frank Miller (Daredevil: Born Again) and Bryan Michael Bendis’ (Daredevil Omnibus, writer) run and Alex Maleev (Daredevil Omnibus, illustrator). With Alex Maleev’s art we were also very much influenced by, we looked at that and we said, ‘that’s the look of the show.’” DeKnight also explained the positives of working with Netflix in comparison to a movie or a network show. “Netflix, they really support long form story telling.”

For fans of the comics, it will come as a relief to know that there is much time taken to develop each character, including the trust of the actor’s in play. “Marvel they were incredibly generous and trusting with the character. You know, they were very vocal about saying you know, ‘look we’ve chosen you and based on the work that you did in the auditions but now take it and run with it and find your own way,” said Charlie Cox, whose performance as Matt Murdock comes with intense research.

For Matt a.k.a. Daredevil, losing his vision came at a young age. As a result, his emotions were heightened and because of the loss of his father he was broken. “This is a normal person,” said Rosario Dawson. “It’s fantastical, it’s comics, it’s all that kind of stuff but it makes it very real. And I think that’s gonna be you know, the difference. You know it’s PG16!” Dawson stars alongside Cox as Claire Temple, a nurse who finds herself involved in the secret life of Matt Murdock. “She does heroic things but I think she’s definitely moved by who he [Matt Murdock] is as a person and recognizes in herself, like ‘could I be doing more?’ and I’m curious to see how people react to that ‘cause I think it’s a very it’s a subliminal question but I think it’s a very real question that is presented in the show,” she commented.

Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) joins the cast as Karen Page, a secretary who joins Murdock and his best friend Foggy Nelson at their firm where they work together to help their neighborhood, New York Hell’s Kitchen. “She was in a home where she thought she trusted people and she thought she was doing good work and it turns out it’s the opposite and that she was part of a machine that was corrupted. And now people are trying to kill her!” something Woll said she didn’t quite experience in True Blood. “It was good because the harder the fall was on that side of it, the more she needs Matt and Foggy to be that surrogate family, the people she can trust and I like that it takes her a little time to trust them. Like she doesn’t hand everything all over right away. They have to sort of prove that they’re trustworthy because she’s suffered a blow.”

While Elden Henson lightens up the show with comedy and charm as Foggy Nelson, he mentioned his character also has some internal battles of his own. “I think Foggy does have some things going on inside that you know he’s also wrestling with, but yea it’s a fun character and you know this show in particular was nice because he wasn’t just that… they brought a lot of depth to all the characters in the show.”

Also joining the series as the “evil” Wilson Fisk is Vincent D’Onofrio (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), a man who tries to control the area but struggles as he battles the rising hero in town. Similar to the emphasis put into character development in this “thirteen hour movie” was the importance of location. Jeff Loeb, who is currently working on Marvel’s A.K.A. Jessica Jones explained. “At the end of the day, Daredevil takes place in Hells Kitchen and we wanted to make sure that it felt very much like New York City and that it was a different kind of New York City than we saw in the world of Tony Stark and the world of The Avengers. You know, just starting out from the beginning we always saw that The Avengers were here to save the universe and that the street level heroes –as we like to call them– are here to save the neighborhood.”

Marvel’s Daredevil premieres Friday, April 10^th on Netflix.