Daredevil's Wasted Netflix Villain Was Meant to Become X-Men's Big Bad
It's crazy to think that a relatively minor villain in Netflix's Daredevil series was meant to become one of the X-Men's most formidable adversaries. Known as The Owl, Leland Owlsley has been a minor villain in Daredevil comics, often underused as a replacement for Kingpin until his inevitable returns. This concept couldn't be any different from how the Owl was originally intended to be used: as the X-Men villain Apocalypse.
The Owl's most famous appearance is most likely in Season 1 of Daredevil on Netflix. In the show, Leland Owlsley is one of Wilson Fisk's high class criminal associates. Most of these alliances fall apart, due in large part to Daredevil's interference in the Kingpin's plans. Near the end of the season, Owlsley reveals to Fisk that he had orchestrated an event that almost led to the death of Fisk's lover, and the latter exacts revenge by pushing Owlsley down an elevator shaft. Not only does this kill the Owl, but it removes him from the series before he even gained his superpowers.
Related: Marvel Is Making a Major Kingpin Mistake By Forgetting About His Son
Like his on-screen counterpart, the Owl is not that big of a concern in the comics. However, that is completely different from the path the writers had intended the character to take. Initially, the Owl was meant to be the leader of the Alliance of Evil, a thorn in the side of the X-Men and X-Factor, but this ended up being Apocalypse. There was a lot of confusion whether or not it was Daredevil's Owl, or a different Owl altogether, but it was confirmed that the original Owl was meant to undergo a mutation, granting him vampiric abilities.
This change was likely due to a change in writers for the X-Factor series, and it was probably for the best.
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