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Daredevil (TV series)

'Daredevil' introduces romantic entanglement with Elektra

Brian Truitt
USA TODAY
Elodie Yung debuts as Elektra in the second season of "Marvel's Daredevil."

For any guy who’s ever had an ex that was bad news and had an unfortunate effect on his life, Daredevil feels you all too well.

His just happens to be a femme fatale businesswoman with ninja skills and an affinity for physical punishment.

Lawyer-turned-vigilante Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) gets all sorts of obstacles in the second season of Marvel's Daredevil (premiering on Netflix Friday), though one of the more attractive ones is the reappearance of former love Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung), who brings him nothing but trouble.

“Reading the scripts, you couldn’t help but feel like every dude in the writer’s room was just like, ‘I’m going to get this out of me, I’m going to say the things I always wanted to say,’” Cox says with a laugh.

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Matt’s former college girlfriend returns to New York City as he begins to explore a potential relationship with friend/colleague Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll). Elektra knows of her old beau’s nighttime habits of beating up bad guys and reports that the Yakuza is up to no good — much to the chagrin of Daredevil, who thought he had sent the Japanese gangsters packing out of Hell’s Kitchen (see: Daredevil Season 1).

“There’s a lot of pride involved: ‘Don’t you dare talk about my city. I’ve got this (stuff) under control,’” Cox says. “And of course he doesn’t and then it gets massively out of control very quickly.”

Having Daredevil face supervillains such as  Wilson Fisk is one thing, adds executive producer Douglas Petrie. "But to have him tested in this whole new way, which is so much sexier and darker and more personal, we were super excited."

Former lovers Elektra (Elodie Yung) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) reconnect in "Marvel's Daredevil."

Matt's duality between lawyer and superhero was a theme that executive producers wanted to address in a big way in the second season, and while the other new addition, the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), shows the bad side of what would happen if Daredevil takes his job too far, Elektra wants him to enjoy the freedom of unleashing all his strength and rage.

Daredevil "doesn’t like to think about his limits, so we like smashing him with those," says Petrie.

Since "there's no version of Elektra where she’s the girl next door," he explains that finding an actress who could exude a mysterious and smart sexiness while also being a dynamic physical presence was a difficult and global process — executive producer Marco Ramirez jokingly refers to it as Star Search: Elektra.

Enter French actress Yung, who had action-packed roles in G.I. Joe: Retaliation and District 13: Ultimatum, plus has multiple martial-arts black belts. "You’re not acting against an actor who’s pretending she can kick your ass," Petrie says. "She can actually kick your ass and she has a certain amount of physical menace to her, which we love."

Having that kind of fiery, exciting and dangerous sort of past girlfriend is something Cox for sure recognizes.

"I've been there," he admits. "You’re madly in love one minute, the next minute you can’t even be in the next room as each other.

"It's something that, God willing, we all grow out of and appreciate a more sane dynamic later on in life. But at the time it’s all consuming, it’s all you can think about, and it’s brilliant and devastating all in one."

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