[This article contains spoilers for Daredevil Season 1 and 2]
Two audition videos for Marvel’s Daredevil Season 2 were added to Vimeo before being deleted. The two women, both appearing to be ethnically diverse, are reading for a character called ‘Elise’ which is believed to be a codename for the role of Elektra Natchios.
In the comics, Elektra is a notorious ninja assassin and sometimes anti-hero, known for wielding her signature weapons: a twin pair of Sai. She was created by Frank Miller (Sin City) in Daredevil #168 in 1981. She became a love interest for Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, but was torn between her desire to be with Matt and her violent lifestyle.
The actresses auditioning, Shiva Kalaiselvan and Louisa Mignone, read two scenes. One involved Elektra intimidating a thug and the second scene is Elektra flirting with Matt Murdock back in college.
In the first season of Daredevil, a flashback scene shows Matt Murdock in his college days, being teased about his romance with a Greek girl (Daredevil Season One’s producer Steven S. DeKnight confirmed in an interview with IGN that the girl being referred to is Elektra).
Below is a transcript of the videos before they were removed.
Elektra: Easy. No moving. No talking. Right now we play a game called, “This is not a conversation.” Sit on the bed.
Thug: Please, my pills, can I get them?
Elektra: The .38’s gone. So is the knife you stashed under the pillow. Anything else I should know about?
Thug: I’m getting on a plane just like you said. Tickets on the counter.
Elektra: I saw, window seat and everything.
Thug: I told you before, you and your partner, it was a long time ago but…
Elektra: (makes a threatening move with weapon)
Thug: I’m sorry. I’m doing everything you told me to do. I’m leaving behind my whole operation.
Elektra: And when you get to wherever you’re going on, I assume you set up shop doing the same sh*t you did here.
Thug: No.
Elektra: Hurting innocent people all because you’re too lazy to get rich the hard way.
Thug: What the hell do you want from me?
Elektra: My partner was a good kid and became a hell of a grown up. But he had goodness in him, once upon a time. The way he tells it, he comes home one night and heard a blow dryer in the bathroom. Dinner’s on the table. He waits a second, but he’s starving – he’s eats alone. Assumes she’ll be out any minute – she’ll be mad, but she’ll understand. Always does. He’s a good son. He goes to find her, blow dryer still on and there she is – brains on the god damn mirror!
Thug: Your partner, that woman was his mother? And he doesn’t even know you’re here, does he?
Elektra: Sometimes it is better off not knowing.
Thug: I’m an old man, I don’t have much time. I’ll give you everything.
Elektra: There is no version of this where you walk out that door.
Thug: Please, lady.
Elektra: Call me that again and I’ll cut your tongue out.
Thug: You promised you wouldn’t kill me.
Elektra: He said he wouldn’t kill you, but me, I never had goodness in me. (slow stabbing motion)
Elektra: Nice shoes, wingtips, good call. Tie them yourself?
Matt Murdock: How did you know?
Elektra: You don’t look like a tough read.
Matt Murdock: You never know I could surprise you.
Elektra: Doubt it.
Matt Murdock: Give it a try.
Elektra: Okay, you drink Macallan because you’re afraid beer would give you a frat boy vibe. You’ve never been inside a fraternity house. You weren’t even a boy scout. There is no club you would join because it would choke the air from your lungs. You’d suffocate. Shall I go on?
Matt Murdock: Please do.
Elektra: Now you think we’re flirting. Your mind’s racing. You’re wondering what piece of wit you can think of next. Know what your problem is? You’re pretty, but dumb. Too dumb to know the game is already over and you lost before you stepped to the plate.
Matt Murdock: You got that all from a pair of wingtips?
Elektra: Quick study.
Matt Murdock: You know what I think?
Elektra: Tell me.
Matt Murdock: You’re bored. Bored of the parties, the faculties, all of it.
Elektra: And I need just the right bad boy to take me away from all this. Is that it?
Matt Murdock: Basically.
Elektra: Know something, you’re right. (takes drink and drinks it) Let’s go.
What we already know:
Stick and Stone, members of a ninja clan known as “The Chaste”
We know that Matt Murdock’s former sensei called Stick exists and that there is a secret war going on, one which he was preparing Matt to fight in as a soldier.
Elektra’s comic book history also includes Stick as her sensei. No longer having faith in the law that couldn’t save her father, she left Matt and America, fleeing to Japan where she continued her martial arts studies that lead her to Stick.
Members of The Chaste, referred to in Frank Miller’s Elektra: Assassin
Joining Stick’s martial arts order called The Chaste, Elektra was eventually banished because she was corrupted by her own rage. Elektra joined The Hand, a dark ninja cult and sworn enemy of The Chaste, with the intention of destroying them from the inside, in the hopes that The Chaste would accept her back into their fold for destroying their foe. However, her plan backfired and she fell under the corruption of The Hand’s dark magical influence, used for many years as their “Perfect Death”. Eventually breaking free and taking control on her own terms, she rose to become the world’s most deadliest assassin for hire.
Elektra and The Hand
In Daredevil season one, Nobu often mysteriously referenced those he worked for, and in his final appearance revealed himself to be a ninja with very lethal skills, training that one would receive as a ninja of The Hand.
Nobu, as pictured in Daredevil season one
We know Elektra is already out in the world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, let’s hope that it’s not too long before we see her steal the show.
