Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock, should be either Latinx or Filipino in all modern incarnations of the character and them’s the facts
I don’t disagree, but I’m wondering if you have specific reasoning?
Oh yes, yes I do.
Daredevil the show is full of anachronisms that come with being a fairly direct modern adaptation of a piece of work from the 1960′s, most notably the fact that Hell’s Kitchen has gentrified. IMO, though, the biggest anachronism, is Matt’s ethnicity.
In the original comics, Matt is Irish American. Being a second generation Irish-American in the 1960′s meant was a LOT different than being a second-generation Irish American in 2017, and a lot of the things that were important about Matt being Irish in the originals are better represented if he were
Because Matt IS an immigrants story- the story of being the 2nd generation (his mother immigrated young in one of the comics I read? IDK, his dad is really Irish-AMERICAN, but the point still stands.) The one who actually “makes it” to fully blend into American culture, the one who lives goes to a fancy university and works a white-collar job in a suit. That divide between the way he was raised, and the circles he works in now, still as a hero for the working person but surrounded by wealth and the upper class- that makes up a really interesting segment of his character.
Matt’s mother was a young woman who slipped through the medical industries cracks and suffered from acute postpartum depression. He’s raised by a single father who makes ends meet by boxing, who instills a strong work ethic in him but dreams of him “rising above.” He has a chance to become very wealthy and both literally and figuratively move from where he was raised, but he chooses to stay and fight for it, because of what a formative place it is for him.
He’s also super Catholic. (Made even more Catholic, I would argue as a practicing one, by how generally mediocre he is at being Catholic.) And that’s really tied into his Dad and his family and were they’re from.
(I’m not saying that there still aren’t Irish Americans that fit this profile. I’m just saying that there are currently a lot more Latinx and Filipinos who do, and that it would provide amazing representation and breathe new life into the character in a way that’s really fitting with his original. Probability wise, if you were to find a young, Catholic, working class lawyer with a background in boxing, he wouldn’t be white. )
The reason I suggested he be either Filipino or Latinx is because they are the some of the largest groups of recent immigrant Catholics, and have strong boxing cultures. Matt could technically be Syrian Catholic or Samoan or Indian or Rwandan. Personally, my grandfather was a Filipino boxer, so I have some skin in this game.
Long story short, I think race bending Matt actually brings him closer to his Irish origins and honors them more, and I am ready to welcome the age of Mateo Miguel Munoz!
That’s so true! I’m so down with that!!! And the world would also have one less white saviour.
I was thinking more Italian, myself, based on immigration patterns of my own family. I was thinking a darker Italian though.
But yes!!! Thank you for taking the time to explain your reasoning. Hopefully marvel will adapt this at some point.
❤ ❤ ❤
In their effort to modernize and diversify the show to match modern NYC w/out doing the same to Matt they’ve made SUCH a white savior complex, that and the Hand Plotline that I will Not Mention BEcause I Hate It with the Fire of A Thousand Suns and the Only Good THing It Brought Us was Elektra.
They’ve started race bending characters, which is nice, but they’ve yet to do it to any main characters so even though it would make all practical sense I think we’ve got white Matt for the foreseeable future
Ohhh, if you haven’t hear of her you might really like Helena Bertinelli, the Black-Sicillian Catholic vigilante queen of my heart. Truly she is #everything and if DC wanted to give us nice things she’d have a full series
I love this, so much!!! ❤ My only criticism is that it should be Muñoz, instead of Munoz (the ñ is so pretty and has such a nice ring). Also, you can bet he is all the time correcting the mispelling, especially when done in any kind of official records, and he doesn’t let anyone say “can I call you Matt? is easier to pronounce?” And he’s there like “my name’s Mateo” (and his friends would call him Mati, like isn’t that cute? *3*)
But it’s never been suggested that Matt is a second generation immigrant. Both of his parents were likely born in NYC (and their parents probably were as well).
The Irish settlement in New York started in the mid-1800s. Having grown up as a member of an identifiable and distinct minority (Irish-American) is not the same as having an experience of recent immigration. It may be for a lot of people, but not in this case.
IDK, I’m not nearly as well versed in the comics canon as you are, but I think I do remember immigration being mentioned in one of the arcs with Maggie.
The point still stands that:
1. Being Irish-American in the 1960′s is a very different pie than being Irish American in the 2010′s. Irish Catholic Americans in 2010 are in every way dominant in the American social structure, and mostly very assimilated. (I don’t think I know a “pure” Irish person- most Irish Americans I know are mixed, not white, and like ½ to an 1/8 Irish. Which is definitely an aside, but having, say, Matt be part Irish, part Mexican, part Filipino? VERY realistic.)
2. There is an absolute dearth of Latinx characters in the MCU, considering that Latinx people make up around 17% percent of the US population and 27% of NYC’s population. Following the general statistics of the city, over 1 in 4 of the characters in the Netflix MCU should be Latinx. This is clearly not the case- Latinx people still remain under-represented in the MCU. (Filipino people are a different story- we’re the 2nd largest Asian nationality in the US but still a relatively small group. Nevertheless, the Netflix MCU is also lacking in Asian representation and having Matt be an Asian protagonist would help with some of the show’s “yellow peril” and “white savior” issues.
3. Matt makes just as much sense in modern NYC as a Latinx and/or Filipino character. He’s still a blind, Catholic lawyer and vigilante. But he provides representation that is desperately needed. There still aren’t any superhero shows aside from Agents of Shield were the front-and-center lead is Asian or Latinx.
4. It’s a more minor point but Matt’s fighting style is quite Filipino as well. As well as having elements of boxing (extremely popular in the Philippines and sections of Latin America!), it’s got a clear visual parallel to arnis and some of the other Filipino martial arts. A quick google search informed me of styles of stick fighting exist all of the world, from South Africa to Afro-Brasillian communities, and I’m up to pretty much every interpretation of Matt’s ethnicity, but it’s something I associate with him.
5. The MCU has no issue race-bending secondary characters- Ned Leeds and Elektra Natchios are now both Southeast Asian! There’s no reasons that main characters like Matt can’t be as well!
In conclusion, making Matt Latinx/Filipino is true to the character AND modern America, and provides important representation!
So I know this might sound wild, but hear me out! I kept thinking about Adam Driver’s recent comments to GQ about a princess hiding who she is in order to survive. The exact quote is:
“You have, also, the hidden identity of this princess who’s hiding who she really is so she can survive and Kylo Ren and her hiding behind these artifices.”
The immediate conclusion people drew was that he was talking about Rey’s origins, and I would be as happy as anyone if this means she is Leia’s or Luke’s daughter.
However, that seems to me a little too easy? And a violation of his NDA if this was an unauthorized comment? Make no mistake, the current promotional blitz is a carefully orchestrated event. The GQ interview and the other media appearances aren’t hard-hitting journalistic pieces on a search for the truth of a galaxy far, far away. They’re meant to sell the movie to us in a way LucasFilm has planned and approved. Unless Driver is currently being sued for all he’s worth I don’t buy that he let a spoiler slip.
It also doesn’t quite fit. Rey isn’t hiding who she is, her identity was hidden from her. There’s also no indication that not knowing her own identity helps her survive or hide.
There was also speculation that the line referred to Leia, but this also doesn’t fit because everyone knows who Leia is–a princess of Alderaan by adoption and the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala by birth. The revelation that her birth father was the hated Darth Vader derailed her political career years before TFA started.
What if the princess is Rose Tico? Here’s what we know about her: she works in maintenance, she is a “nobody,” her home was destroyed by the First Order and, according to the book Star Wars Made Easy, “she has a tragic past that she prefers to keep hidden.”
This last part has prompted speculations that Rose is a former student of Luke’s and survived the massacre of the Jedi school. But what about the part where her home was destroyed by the First Order? I guess one could say the Jedi Temple was her home, but we know that she has a sister, Paige, so she has or had an origin family. Wouldn’t it be more natural to say this family’s home was her home? Did the First Order destroy her school AND her family’s home? I mean that seems a bit much to me.
What if we assume instead that the destruction of her home and the tragic past are connected–her home was destroyed, and this is part of her tragic past? Running with the princess theory, she was royalty on her home planet but it was destroyed by the First Order, and she had to go into hiding as a result.
We know from the Princess Leia comic that the Empire targeted the surviving Alderaanians after destroying their home planet. The First Order is certainly not above such tactics, especially when any surviving members of the former leadership may be a threat to their rule.
Rose as a lost princess, in other words, fits the description of a princess hiding her identity to survive and also matches our scant prior knowledge of her. Even Kelly Marie Tran flatly stating that she’s not royalty could be read as a deflection that is not quite a lie–it was said in the present tense, and from a certain point of view (cough) royalty with no power and nothing to rule is not, in fact, currently royalty beyond a title.
Now think about the courage it took for a Princess Rose, marked for death by the same organization that destroyed her home planet, to run not away from danger but into it by joining the Resistance like a certain other Princess we know of. Think of how her story would affect Finn, whose internal conflict in TLJ is whether to stay and fight or to run.
To get even farther with the speculation, what if Rose’s destroyed home and the home Finn was taken from are the same? What if they are bound by the ties of a common origin, even the ties of family?
I would die of joy if we have Princess Rose and her knight Sir Finn, or Princess Rose and Prince Finn as brother and sister. Even if it’s not canon it’s a really fun piece of speculation.
And if you’re outright dismissing this theory as crack, why is that? If you’re willing to believe a scavenger can be a princess, why not a mechanic?
YES PLEASE!
Isn’t it already known that there’s some kind of massive secret/revelation in her identity?
Yup! I mean I was a bit off with where Adam’s comment was pointing in the interview (it was… Kylo Ren? sort of) but there’s also @kyberfox ’s necklace meta which hints at something potentially big. I can’t wait for the reveal!
In The Empire Strikes Back, when Leia tells Han she happens to like nice men, she was referring to her residual crush on Cassian Andor; a habitual unintentional friend-maker and ally to sassy droids w free will, the nicest man in the galaxy.
Sources: My fists.
Yes this was definitely the case
And also why Leia was so continually ticked off at Han, because the universe was playing such a cruel trick on her that Cassian Andor got to die but this nerfnedder got to live
Here’s a deleted scene from Rogue One that proves this is canon, actually!
“Oh, so you’re not even going to see me out?”
Captain Andor–Cassian, she turned the name over in her mind, examining it, touching it–turned halfway from his post at the entryway where he had his blaster aimed outward to cover her retreat.
“So it was the royal treatment you wanted, after all.”
She felt her face grow hot though his eyebrow was quirked and his tone teasing, or maybe it was because of those things. “I suppose I’ll be on my way then.”
“I hate good-byes. I’ll see you again, Leia. K2,” he gestured with his head, “escort the Princess to her ship.”
The smoky black form of the battle droid lumbered out of a corner, coin-round eyes blinking in something like mechanized innocence.
“I will have you know I am fully qualified for royal protocol. I was a certified Class 3 Imperial Protocol Droid, and I can remove the spinal cord of any being who tries to hinder you.”
“Do I even want to know?” Leia covered her head with her hood. “Don’t die, Captain.”
“You are not part of my chain of command, but I will give your request due consideration.” He turned back outside and bent to his scope. “They’re on their way. Hurry.”
She started saying good-bye, thought better of it, and turned away with one last look at the Captain’s back.
It wasn’t until later, when she learned what had happened at Scarif and it sank in that this last glance was the last she would see of him, that she realized he had called her Leia. She would wish for the rest of her life she had returned the favor.
Calling out @rinsantago forever for spelling Anne without an E. She does not approve.
how DARE you come into MY HOUSE and the tell me that I’m pRobleMatIc for misnaming an iconic childhood icon, OK? MISNAME AND LET MISNAME.
OMG don’t u know how SRSLY anglos suffer from misnaming in REAL LIFE???!!!! Just because their names all sound alike and there are nonsensical silent letters all over doesn’t mean you get to dO tHAt?? The struggle! Is! Real!!!
They may have been evil, but they were very, very good. Finn studied all the historic battles over and over again as part of his training, told about the Empire’s mistakes and how the First Order would avoid them.
He studied the Rebels’ infiltration of the imperial records depository at Scarif, how a team led by the traitors Bodhi Rook and Jyn Erso, the ruthless assassin and spymaster Cassian Andor, and the cult-bred killers Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus infiltrated the installation and destroyed the planet in a deadly suicide mission.
He learned about the Battle of Yavin, where Princess Leia Organa–after all these years still a menace to peace and order–lured the Death Star to the Rebels’ base and an ambush, where Luke Skywalker destroyed the station with one well-placed shot, snuffing out the thousands of lives within.
He read about the Battle of Hoth where the Rebels eluded the Empire’s pursuit yet again, about the Battle of Endor where the Rebellion moved together like the parts of a symphony. Finn found himself glued to the screen as he learned, through reports and surviving archival footage, how the smuggler Han Solo led a ground assault to disable the Second Death Star’s shields while Admiral Gial Ackbar, at large and a threat like Organa, joined battle in space. All this was only a cover, however, for Luke Skywalker to board the battle station and murder Darth Vader and the helpless Emperor. Criminal kingpin Lando Calrissian finished the job in another act of wanton destruction, an assault so reckless, so foolhardy it should have failed by all rights but somehow succeeded brilliantly.
Finn used his own time to delve deeper into these battles, reading past lights-out until he was caught and got in trouble. He told himself as he dug out a drainage ditch as punishment that he wasn’t getting too deep into the history of the Rebellion, he just wanted to know the enemy so he could beat them this time around.
But by Space, those Rebels were good. It was no wonder a terrorist group had toppled the mighty Empire. If the First Order learned more from their enemies’ tactics it would be unstoppable, and unlike the Rebellion whose puppet government was already crumbling, the Order’s victory would be a lasting one based on justice and the rule of the Supreme Leader.
Nevertheless, the sense of awe at the sheer skill of these terrorists stayed with Finn. That was why, when faced with one of those legends, the smuggler, criminal, the terrorist Han Solo in the flesh, the words burst out as though they had been caught in his throat the entire time:
“Wasn’t he a war hero?!”
OH MY GOD, END ME NOW, I LOVE THIS!!!! Finn as the scholar, drawing from the heroes of the past, (and also not having time for Han’s bullshit) BRILLIANT CONCEPT, 13/10, the bit about the Rogue One being lead by traitors, I”M SCREAMING IN THE CLUB
What do you want to bet the OT trio and the Rogue One crew (’CAUSE THEY’RE NOT DEAD, LINDA) get Finn to tell them how the FO curriculum describes them and compete to see which is the best? “’Traitor?’ Not bad, but needs more spice. I did a lot more than that!” “Assassin and spymaster! Accurate, yet badass.” “Who did you pay to get them to call you ‘criminal kingpin,’ you scoundrel? I was there, you were small-time.” “Oh please, like anyone can beat cult killers?”
HEADCANON ACCEPTED (Bodhi wins. Everyone else has to chip in to buy him lunch, which they would totally do anyway, but this way they get to all kvetch a bit. )
They may have been evil, but they were very, very good. Finn studied all the historic battles over and over again as part of his training, told about the Empire’s mistakes and how the First Order would avoid them.
He studied the Rebels’ infiltration of the imperial records depository at Scarif, how a team led by the traitors Bodhi Rook and Jyn Erso, the ruthless assassin and spymaster Cassian Andor, and the cult-bred killers Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus infiltrated the installation and destroyed the planet in a deadly suicide mission.
He learned about the Battle of Yavin, where Princess Leia Organa–after all these years still a menace to peace and order–lured the Death Star to the Rebels’ base and an ambush, where Luke Skywalker destroyed the station with one well-placed shot, snuffing out the thousands of lives within.
He read about the Battle of Hoth where the Rebels eluded the Empire’s pursuit yet again, about the Battle of Endor where the Rebellion moved together like the parts of a symphony. Finn found himself glued to the screen as he learned, through reports and surviving archival footage, how the smuggler Han Solo led a ground assault to disable the Second Death Star’s shields while Admiral Gial Ackbar, at large and a threat like Organa, joined battle in space. All this was only a cover, however, for Luke Skywalker to board the battle station and murder Darth Vader and the helpless Emperor. Criminal kingpin Lando Calrissian finished the job in another act of wanton destruction, an assault so reckless, so foolhardy it should have failed by all rights but somehow succeeded brilliantly.
Finn used his own time to delve deeper into these battles, reading past lights-out until he was caught and got in trouble. He told himself as he dug out a drainage ditch as punishment that he wasn’t getting too deep into the history of the Rebellion, he just wanted to know the enemy so he could beat them this time around.
But by Space, those Rebels were good. It was no wonder a terrorist group had toppled the mighty Empire. If the First Order learned more from their enemies’ tactics it would be unstoppable, and unlike the Rebellion whose puppet government was already crumbling, the Order’s victory would be a lasting one based on justice and the rule of the Supreme Leader.
Nevertheless, the sense of awe at the sheer skill of these terrorists stayed with Finn. That was why, when faced with one of those legends, the smuggler, criminal, the terrorist Han Solo in the flesh, the words burst out as though they had been caught in his throat the entire time:
“Wasn’t he a war hero?!”
OH MY GOD, END ME NOW, I LOVE THIS!!!! Finn as the scholar, drawing from the heroes of the past, (and also not having time for Han’s bullshit) BRILLIANT CONCEPT, 13/10, the bit about the Rogue One being lead by traitors, I”M SCREAMING IN THE CLUB
What do you want to bet the OT trio and the Rogue One crew (’CAUSE THEY’RE NOT DEAD, LINDA) get Finn to tell them how the FO curriculum describes them and compete to see which is the best? “’Traitor?’ Not bad, but needs more spice. I did a lot more than that!” “Assassin and spymaster! Accurate, yet badass.” “Who did you pay to get them to call you ‘criminal kingpin,’ you scoundrel? I was there, you were small-time.” “Oh please, like anyone can beat cult killers?”
L.J.'s Obsessions 