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Marvel’s ‘The Defenders’ Will Not Be Like The Avengers

By Stephen Jordan
Published on: 10:39 PST, Jul 25, 2016

Marvel and Netflix’s The Defenders is going to tie-in Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist as the heroes of each series band together to save their city. Ever since the announcement was first made to bring these characters to Netflix, it was always clear that it would culminate in a mini-series that would somewhat follow the pattern of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

Meaning The Defenders was essentially going to be the Avengers, only on Netflix. But Marvel’s Head of Television, Jeph Loeb, says that isn’t necessarily the case. While speaking with ET, Loeb says the Avengers are going to be different from the Defenders, and the tones will most definitely be different.

“First of all, they’re very different characters, so it’s a very different world. I’ve always said that The Avengers are here to save the universe — and nobody does it better! The street-level heroes are here to save the neighborhood and, in many cases, to save themselves. It makes for very compelling drama.”

Some of the bigger heroes have subtly been mentioned rarely on Daredevil and Jessica Jones, like Captain America, Hulk, and Thor. For the most part, the Netflix shows don’t seem too heavily influenced by the events of the MCU films. They certainly differ in tone, with the Netflix shows carrying a much darker and sobering tone, as opposed to the fun and brightness of the movies.

Loeb reveals that the Defenders are not going to get along with one another when we meet them in this mini-series and when they meet each other. This isn’t all that surprising. From what we’ve seen so far, Matt Murdock/Daredevil prefers handling things on his own, and Jessica Jones isn’t much of a people person.

“These characters are very complex and very rich, so our real question is, ‘What happens when they get together?’ We could do an episode where the four of them just talk about who they are, as opposed to what they’re fighting or what’s at stake.”

The approach to the eight-episode mini-series is going to differ from how they handle their 13-episode shows. We can probably expect it to be more action-packed than a season of any of the standalone series.

“This is, for us, an eight-episode event, as opposed to a season of a story,” Jeph Loeb commented. “In many ways, we see it as, this is kind of the Olympics, where you get to know all of these athletes in their various sports all throughout their careers, and then once every four years they’re going to get together and compete against each other.”

Iron Fist is still currently filming and once that wraps up, Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter and Finn Jones are going right into production on The Defenders.

“What we do know is at the end of this year we’re going to be making The Defenders and, of course, Daredevil is very much a part of that foursome,” Cox himself said earlier this year, after the second season of Daredevil premiered.

Beyond The Defenders and the other Netflix shows, there are some exciting developments to look forward to with ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. It was recently announced, at San Diego Comic-Con, that the fourth season of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be introducing the character of Ghost Rider into the mix. But it won’t be Johnny Blaze.

Instead, the writers and producers will be bringing in Robbie Reyes, who took the mantle of Ghost Rider in 2014 with his own series. Instead of the motorcycle, Reyes drives a black muscle car as the Ghost Rider and has a completely different origin story than that of Johnny Blaze.

The Defenders should more than likely premiere on Netflix sometime in 2017, after Iron Fist.

[Image via Marvel/Netflix]

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