Superhero team-ups usually bring the fun, whether it’s The Avengers or DC’s television crossover events, but that word may not be apropos for Netflix’s The Defenders, this summer’s event series bringing together Marvel’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Each of those shows epitomize the word grit, and there’s little to suggest that joining the heroes up will lighten the proceedings. So, cool? Yes. Fun? We’ll see. But what is fun is getting our first look at images from the show courtesy of Entertainment Weekly.
Sigourney Weaver is the show’s big bad, Alexandra, and she is the one that the combined efforts of the four heroes will be needed to take down. Describing the character as an “utter badass,” showrunner Marco Ramirez offers, “[Sigourney’s] character is a very powerful force in New York City. She’s everything Sigourney is: sophisticated, intellectual, dangerous.”
Simone Missick reprises her Luke Cage role of police officer Misty Knight. Here’s she’s seen with Krysten Ritter, who is back as Jessica Jones (which will be getting a second season, though when hasn’t been announced as of yet).
In the finale of season one of Luke Cage, Mike Colter in the title role decided to return to prison to serve out the rest of his sentence. This image from The Defenders either represents Cage’s initial return or the moment when he’s about to break out again to help take down Alexandera.
Last summer, Empire spoke to executive producer Jeph Loeb, who admitted that the expectation was that people who had seen one of the Netflix series had seen at least one or two of the others, but that it wasn’t something they could count on. As a result, The Defenders needs to feel like it’s of its own world.
“But make no mistake about it,” he said, “there is an engine that is driving towards that story. If you’ve been with us and you’ve watched, so far, the next question is, what happens when they meet? That's the part that’s interesting to us. It’s not who’s the big bad or how are their powers going to work or what’s the action sequence that we’re going to figure out. It’s these are four people who have very different ways of looking at their lives. Now let’s put them together and see what happens.”
• Marvel's The Defenders: Jephh Loeb On The Netflix Crossover Series