‘Marvel’s The Defenders’: Everything We Know So Far About The Netflix Series

On August 18, 2017 — exactly four months from now — Netflix will give us a brand new superhero team to root for. Marvel’s The Defenders will unite Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) in a bitter fight for the fate of New York City.

Both Marvel and Netflix have been teasing the series since last summer, when they dropped a teaser trailer, but thanks to set photos, official casting announcements, and lots and lots of Easter eggs, we’re finally getting a sense of how the series is shaping up.

What’s the deal with Marvel’s The Defenders?

Marvel’s The Defenders is set to be an eight-episode-long miniseries that ties the entire Netflix Marvel universe together. The entire season will drop worldwide on Netflix on August 18, 2017 at 12 AM PT. The series is being showrun by Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez, the same team behind Season Two of Daredevil. We know that S.J. Clarkson is directing the first two episodes.

Who’s going to be in it?

So far, here is the confirmed cast:

Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil)
Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones
Mike Colter as Luke Cage
Finn Jones as Danny Rand (aka Iron Fist)
Elodie Yung as Elektra Nachios
Sigourney Weaver as “Alexandra” (we’ll get to her)
Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse
Simone Missick as Misty Knight
Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page
Eldon Hanson as Foggy Nelson
Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth
Scott Glenn as Stick
Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker (aka Hellcat)
Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple
Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing
Marko Zaror as Shaft

Oh, and Stan Lee as a face on a poster in the background of a shot.

So who are The Defenders fighting?

Sigourney Weaver is playing a villain simply named “Alexandra.” Comic book nerds are stymied as to who her comic book alter ego might be, but we got some clues from a big feature that Entertainment Weekly did recently. Weaver describes her as “really smart,” and show runner Marco Ramirez calls her “a very powerful force in New York City.”

Early set photos and official stills see her dressed up in high class civilian gear in a limo and overseeing what looks to be Columbus Circle. One of the covers on the Easter Egg-heavy New York Bulletin tumblr reads “Earthshaking Groundbreaking: Midland Circle Rises To New Heights.” Coincidentally, the most recent teaser for The Defenders is cribbed from Midland Circle’s security cam and the official line is that is where the four Defenders will finally meet. (Many set photos have Jessica Jones, Matt Murdock, and Luke Cage all hanging together and Danny Rand sticking alongside Colleen Wing, so we’re going to guess that Danny’s the latecomer to the party. But it’s a guess.)

Are they fighting anyone else? What about The Hand?

The Hand, a super secret order of bad ninjas obsessed with magic, have foiled both Daredevil and Iron Fist in the past. We know that Elodie Yung is reprising her role as Elektra (who is now totally Black Sky, The Hand’s mystical undead weapon) and that Scott Glenn will also be back.

The Hand seems like a natural fit for bringing the team together and in Season Two of Daredevil they had been guarding a really creepy big hole. Also of note? That Bulletin cover that namecheck Midland Circle has an inset story about a “Crackpot Scientist” seeking a “Lost City.” Yeah, that sounds ominous.

Is The Punisher going go show up in The Defenders?

Interesting question. The Punisher, aka Frank Castle, will be getting his own Netflix series later this year. We know that Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page will appear in the series and Ben Barnes will co-star as Billy Russo, an old “friend” from Special Forces. However, there has been no announcement that Jon Bernthal will join the cast of The Defenders.

That being said…keep two things in mind:

1. There was no official announcement that Vincent D’Onofrio would appear in Season Two of Daredevil, so there’s precedent for a surprise appearance. And…
2. Marvel Comics is setting up a new Defenders series that unites, yes, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist and pits them against Punisher. The comics don’t always mirror the shows and films, but it’s possible that we may see the Punisher versus the Defenders down the line.

Where can I keep track of all these so-called Easter Eggs?

In addition to setting up a big splashy cover story with Entertainment Weekly, the marketing team behind Marvel’s The Defenders has already launched an ad campaign big on Easter Eggs and inside jokes. Case in point: the first real teaser for the series (after last summer’s San Diego Comic Con teaser), dropped early this month and features the quartet sulking in an elevator. The timecode in the upper right hand corner slipped the release date to the public before the official announcement came out and the address in the top left hand corner brought people to The Daily Bulletin tumblr — which in turn is full of external links to places like the corny website for Colleen Wing’s dojo (which in turn has an ad that links to Ward Meechum’s LinkedIn profile).

Oh, and check out Getty Images on occasion. You can google various castmembers and find set photos from this winter that reveal a lot (without getting super spoiler-y).

And, you know, you could just check back with Decider.

Marvel’s The Defenders debuts on Netflix on August 18, 2017.

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