Ben Affleck has never been particularly sentimental about his 2003 Daredevil movie. The Oscar winner has spent years poking fun at his first superhero outing, and considering some of the creative choices in that movie, I can’t entirely blame him. Still, his latest reflection on playing Matt Murdock contains a pretty fascinating regret, especially when you realize the guy he wishes he’d listened to was standing right there on set.
During a recent appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, shared in an Instagram clip, Affleck revisited his time as the Man Without Fear and offered some considerable praise for Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Apparently, he would love to travel back to 2003 and give Feige a much bigger say in what they were making. He recalled:
… The motherfucker was standing there on the set of Daredevil. He just wasn’t in charge. It was one of the things I wish I could go back in time on is like, go back in in time and be like, ‘No, not you, you, you. You, come here. What do you think we should do?’
The former Man Without Fear’s admiration for Feige goes well beyond wishing he’d received better notes on Daredevil. In fact, he recently called the Marvel Studios president a genius while discussing his experiences with superhero franchises.
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The Good Will Hunting actor recalled that Feige was working on Daredevil long before he became the architect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Avi Arad was running Marvel’s film operations at the time, while Feige served as a co-producer. Looking back, the Argo filmmaker finds that arrangement pretty frustrating, with everyone having their own ideas of how things should go. He added:
Everyone had their own ideas, and I was like, ‘Do you really … should I really be sniffing and saying justice? I just wonder if that’s the best … and why, why am I sniffing? What am I smelling? And what does that have to do with justice? Is justice a smell?’
Listen, you can save your unrated cut; I want the time-travel alternative Feige cut of 2003’s Daredevil.
Director Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil arrived in the early ‘00s, starring the Gone Girl star alongside Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Colin Farrell as Bullseye, and Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin. It earned about $179 million worldwide against a reported $78 million production budget, though critics were far less enthusiastic. The movie currently sits at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, though Charlie Cox has defended Affleck’s Matt Murdock performance while criticizing the movie itself.
I have a soft spot for the film’s early-2000s comic-book weirdness, but some moments practically demand an explanation. Affleck apparently agrees. I’ve watched that movie more times than I’d care to admit, and somehow that question has never occurred to me.
The Pearl Harbor performer praised the Marvel boss for understanding what moviegoers want and managing the extraordinarily difficult balancing act of superhero storytelling. The actor even suggested Feige was practically the only Hollywood producer who reliably knew what audiences would respond to.
Coming from someone who played both Daredevil and Batman, that carries some weight. Affleck experienced superhero filmmaking before the MCU existed and later witnessed the considerable difficulties surrounding DC’s Justice League. He knows how quickly these enormous productions can become complicated.
As for another shot at Matt Murdock, Affleck revealed Feige hasn’t approached him about returning, though he jokingly wishes he would. He also acknowledged that he feels largely finished with superhero movies.
Meanwhile, Charlie Cox has spent more than a decade making the character his own through Daredevil and Daredevil: Born Again, which is preparing to conclude with its third season. The Academy Award-winning writer-director may be done wearing superhero costumes, and no Affleck-led Daredevil revival is on the 2026 movie schedule, but the genre certainly isn’t slowing down. Plenty of superhero movies are on the horizon, including major projects from both Marvel and DC. Meanwhile, fans can revisit Batfleck’s turn as Mattfleck in the original DD movie with a Disney+ subscription.