So, for those who are not familiar with this comic-book miniseries, 'Elektra: Assassin' is an 1986 mini who helped redefine the character of Elektra.

Created by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz, the story follows Elektra as she wakes up in an asylum on South America, trying to piece her memories together. She soon figures out that she's trying to stop The Beast, an ancient demon worshipped by The Hand, that has taken the form of presidential candidate Ken Wind. However, Elektra accidentally linked her mind to John Garrett, a cyborg SHIELD agent, who assists her on her mission.

**My creative process**

So, in my attempts to adapt it, the first things I had to figure out were how to translate these elements and characters to the MCU while respecting pre-established lore/characters. John Garrett, for example, is not only dead in the MCU, but also a villain (the main antagonist of Agents of SHIELD season 1), portrayed by the late, great, Bill Paxton. In order to respect what was established in that show and also Bill Paxton's performance (so no recasting), I knew I had to pivot to another character: **Mike Peterson / Deathlok**.

Deathlok is introduced in the same storyline as Garrett, and much like him, is also a cyborg. He has a tragic storyline where he's separated from his son Ace and weaponized by HYDRA. In the end, he leaves to find himself on his own and is never reunited with his son due to his own shame and guilt. He later returns in brief story arcs helping SHIELD on some missions, but the Ace of it all is never really figured out. And that gave me a good start and a good tie to our other lead: **Elektra**.

MCU Elektra is, in some ways, especially her origin story, very different from her comic book counterpart. That doesn't mean she's a bad adaptation, though. Elodie Yung does a great job especially in Daredevil season 2. However, her Elektra lacks, for example, the father's death as a motivation, and the psychic abilities that are very important in the Elektra: Assassin storyline. She's also currently dead, or missing. So, I've decided to use the events of Midland Circle/The Defenders as a starting point.

Elektra has been in a coma for the most part of a decade since the events of the Defenders. When the story begins, she's been awake for a while, but is still piecing together her memories of what she went through. This serves to mirror the beginning of Elektra: Assassin, and also to recap the events of the Netflix series for those who didn't watch it.

This version of Elektra is especially characterized by being constantly defined by others and never by herself. Stick, Matt, her adoptive parents and Alexandra all tried telling her who she was until she started believing it. She was weaponized by Stick, then she was thought how to be classy by her adoptive parents, then Matt tried to make her a hero, and Alexandra tried to turn her into the Black Sky. This is especially clear when it comes to her relationship with Stick, who is a father figure to her. This is the first time in her life that she'll have a chance to figure out who she is on her own. And that's the starting point of our story: **a fatherless woman and a childless father**.

There's a clear mirror in Elektra and Mike's storylines, which makes their pairing work so well in this adaptation.

The other major MCU adaptation that I had to make has to do with SHIELD, since it is in a completely different place in the MCU right now. As most of you know, despite a few mentions in some recent projects, SHIELD has been largely ignored by the MCU since TWS. The show's canonicity is ambiguous to say the least and it is rarely acknowledged. But since the comic book features SHIELD so heavily, I knew I had to include it here as well, and that meant bringing in a few characters from Agents of SHIELD. Replacing Agent Chastity McBride and Colonel Fury from Elektra: Assassin, we have **Agent Melinda May and Director Alphonso "Mack" Mackenzie**.

While Mack serves a supporting role in the story, May ended up having a bigger role to play, in part because of her backstory. Having been defined by the events of Bahrain and having to kill a child Inhuman, May sees in Elektra, a woman who was groomed by a cult of ninjas as a child, a mirror to the girl she could not save. That, alongside her knowing Mike Peterson, makes her an ally to our lead duo.

Last but not least, while **Ken Wind** is a great threat, I knew I wanted more villains for Elektra and Deathlok to face, so I worked **Mary Walker** (aka Iron Fist's take on Typhoid Mary) into the story, as a way of continuing her storyline while also soft-rebooting her. I also added the character of **Lord Daito** from the comics, to give Elektra an enemy from her past who represented the Hand.

Soft-reboot is the key word here. While the project features many, many characters from Marvel Television, none of that would be required viewing. They would be reintroduced for new viewers and the story would work really well as a close-ended thing. A potential season 2, for example, would feature a largely new cast with only Elektra and a handful characters returning.

Finally, I decided to split the miniseries into 8 episodes. Each episode would be focused on one of our regular characters.

**Chapter 1: The Assassin** (Elektra)

**Chapter 2: The Cyborg** (Deathlok)

**Chapter 3: The Grandmaster** (Lord Daito)

**Chapter 4: The Cavalry** (Melinda May)

**Chapter 5: The Director** (Mack)

**Chapter 6: The Soldier** (Mary Walker)

**Chapter 7: The Beast** (Ken Wind)

**Chapter 8: The Binary** (Elektra and Deathlok)



So, this is just the beginning of my creative process. I'm now working on breaking down each of the episodes and solidifying each of my character arcs. If you guys are interested in hearing more about this, let me know and I'll make sure to post it. Hope you like it haha

Voir le contenu lié