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Ben Affleck, who plays the title role in the upcoming Daredevil film, defended to reporters the decision to make the Marvel Comics character very dark in the film. Revealing a few film spoilers, Affleck discussed director/writer Mark Steven Johnson's decision to have Daredevil stand by while a criminal dies and to take prescription drugs and to pull out one of his own teeth after a particularly violent encounter.

Allowing a villain to die "was a real controversial issue," Affleck said at a press conference. "I know that the really hardcore fans, myself included—and I think probably even Marvel—felt that was stepping over a line in a way. We went back and forth over that many, many times. That's the one way it kind of deviates from the heart of the book. Daredevil never killed anybody [in the comics]. He does let Bullseye drop in the comic book, and in this film we throw him out the window. That's very consistent with the comic. But he was not as vengeful as we portrayed him in the beginning."

But, Affleck added, the death was necessary to establish Daredevil/Matt Murdock's dark state of mind at the film's outset. "For the sake of giving the character an arc—letting him go from a guy who is seeking ultimate vengeance to a guy who understands the difference between that and justice and understands about mercy and compassion, largely because of the love of this woman—we kept it in there," he said.

Murdock is also shown taking prescription drugs in the movie. "I thought that was emblematic in a way in which this has its own tone," said Affleck, who has had his own public brushes with addiction. "It's a little grittier, a little bit more realistic. It represented the fact that in this comic-book, superhero universe, when a guy gets hit or is stabbed, he bleeds, and there are consequences to it. ... I think that speaks to the violence issue, that there are consequences to violence." Daredevil opens Feb. 14.