As impressive as Marvel’s Daredevil was in its first season, the absence of two key characters from the Daredevil comic book mythology was notable and gave fans something to hope for in the next edition of the Netflix show. We’ll be getting at least one of them in season two.
Marvel announced on Tuesday that Elodie Yung has been cast as Elektra, the ninja assassin who’s both a love interest for Matt Murdock and an adversary for Daredevil. Her résumé is limited to U.S. audiences, having appeared in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
It’s probably the latter for which Yung is best known, and what may have helped convince Daredevil‘s producers she was right for the role. At the very least, she can fight and wear red — two things for which is Elektra is known — as you can see in this clip.
Created by Frank Miller during his iconic comic book run in the 1980s, Elektra was intended to be a one-off character. But she became so popular with fans that her narrative arc extended in the comics and she eventually headlined several titles of her own. (And obviously, Elektra is associated with Daredevil so closely that she’s been included in his movie and TV incarnations.
In the comics, Elektra and Murdock meet in college and become enamored with meeting someone else who has the same skills and need to run along the rooftops of New York City at night. If you watched season one of Daredevil, you might remember that Murdock’s best friend, Foggy, teases him about a “Greek girl.” That made longtime fans of the character smile or squeal, depending on their level of enthusiasm, knowing that the reference was to Elektra.
The show’s first season dangled plenty of story threads that hinted at Elektra’s eventual involvement. Murdock’s sensei, Stick, also attempted to train Elektra before she fell in with a cult of ninjas (one of whom, Nobu, was an ally of Wilson Fisk and fought Daredevil in episode nine). The assassin is also eventually employed by Fisk and assigned to kill Foggy. It wouldn’t be surprising to see one or many of these storylines used in season two, though the show isn’t obligated to follow the comics faithfully.
What’s certainly encouraging is that the show cast someone who appears ethnic (Yung is of French and Cambodian descent) as a character who’s supposed to be Greek. That’s not to say producers had to hire someone who looked obviously Greek (whatever that would look like), but it’s nice that they made a more daring choice than Jennifer Garner (who played Elektra in the 2003 Daredevil movie that we should all probably forget).
There have been no rumors or reports regarding who else may have been up for the role, but that’s irrelevant now. As you can see in the scene embedded above, Yung can definitely do action, which means that the fight scenes in Daredevil‘s second season could be even better. (And they were pretty damn good in season one.)
Yung joins Jon Bernthal (who will play The Punisher) as new additions for season two of Daredevil. That probably means that Daredevil’s arch-nemesis, the hitman Bullseye, probably won’t show up. As fans of the comic books know (or if you saw the Ben Affleck flick), Bullseye and Elektra eventually have a fateful confrontation. That’s apparently something to look forward to in a third season.
