Netflix And Marvel Find Their Daredevil

International comic-book behemoth Marvel has taken a great stride forward in its TV development projects today, with official confirmation coming from the publishing and film giant that Boardwalk Empire actor Charlie Cox has scored the role of Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the upcoming TV show of the same name.

The series, produced in collaboration with streaming video service Netflix, suffered a setback at the weekend when its previous show runner, Drew Goddard (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost), departed the project. Goddard was consequently replaced by Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus, Smallville, Buffy), but will stay on as executive producer while juggling work on The Amazing Spider-Man spin-off, Sinister Six.

Marvel TV's Jeph Loeb (Smallville, Heroes, Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.) will also hold an executive producers' role.

Daredevil is not the only Marvel project to experience upheaval over the weekend – fans of Ant-Man and/or Edgar Wright are reeling from the latter's departure from the director's chair for the former's eponymous film, reportedly over creative differences.

Cox's casting is the first such announcement for the 13-episode Daredevil series, which is set to premiere on Netflix next year. The last person to inhabit the role was DC's new, sad Batman Ben Affleck back in 2003. Though the film was critically and commercially panned, the Daredevil character - blind lawyer by day, blind ass-kicker by night - has remained a popular drawcard among comics readers under the careful guidance of veteran scribes Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker and Andy Diggle.

The show is the first of five planned series from the comics company, with fellow Hells Kitchen residents Luke Cage and Jessica Jones both slated to get their own series alongside Cage's partner in anti-crime and living weapon Iron Fist.

The four individual series are then planned to converge on one another in The Defenders – a small-screen set-up of Marvel's Avengers strategy. Either way, the chief rival of fellow TV prodigy DC (Arrow, The Flash, Gotham, iZombie, Constantine, Hourman) is about to well and truly throw its hat into our living rooms.