Matt Damon Almost Played Daredevil (Photo Credit – Koimoi)
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Before Ben Affleck rocked the red suit in Daredevil (2003), Matt Damon had the chance to play the blind vigilante himself—and he passed. Damon almost took the role of ultimately making Affleck the king of Hell’s Kitchen. Daredevil was their comic of choice as kids, but when the casting call came, Damon had second thoughts.
“For us, it was always ‘Daredevil’ — that’s the comic we read when we were kids,” he said. But, when push came to shove, Damon bailed. “I hadn’t seen the director [Mark Steven Johnson’s] work, and I didn’t know. So I just said, ‘No.’ Ben was like, ‘I gotta do it.’”
Let’s pause for a moment. Daredevil with Damon? A whole other multiverse of people. But instead, Damon dodged the spandex bullet while Affleck took on the role, starring in a flick that would go on to be, well, something.
Fast forward to 2016, and Damon was too busy to dwell on superhero regrets. Instead, he was slaying as Jason Bourne in Bourne 5, a role that did stick. While promoting The Martian (because, you know, saving Mars is a thing), he casually dropped some nuggets about the Bourne return.
“It’s 12 years since Jason Bourne has been on the grid,” Damon revealed. But here’s the kicker—what had kept Bourne off the radar all that time? “Once we solved all that, then we had a movie.” There are so many secrets. So much suspense. Jason Bourne was back, but not without many questions hanging in the air.
But let’s not forget about that Daredevil near-miss. Damon owned up to his hesitation. He knew it was a big deal, but still, he couldn’t pull the trigger. “I chickened out.” Damn. The Daredevil role went to Affleck, and… we all know how that turned out.
Still, Damon wasn’t bitter. He did throw a major “what if” grenade when he said, “If Chris Nolan came up to me and said, ‘I want to do Daredevil,’ I would be in. Just putting that out there.” Mic drop. Could you imagine? Nolan’s Daredevil? We’re talking dark, brooding, and probably a Batmobile in Hell’s Kitchen. Take my money, please.
While Damon may have skipped the superhero universe in favor of a different kind of ass-kicking (looking at you, Bourne), it’s wild to think what could’ve been. Daredevil with Damon? It’s a whole other cinematic world. But hey, Damon had no regrets—he carved out his legacy in the action-hero space with Bourne, and by 2016, he was still knocking it out of the park with Bourne 5.
Daredevil? Never happened. But Jason Bourne? Hell yes. Let’s get back to daydreaming about that Nolan-helmed Daredevil because if anyone could have made that work, it’s him.
