It’s been four years since The Avengers assembled for the first time to battle Loki and the Chitauri threat. So much has happened in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since then that it has us wondering: where are The Defenders? The street-level team of crime fighters slowly began to inhabit Marvel’s Netflix properties with Daredevil, and Jessica Jones, which will connect with the upcoming Luke Cage and Iron Fist series, but we haven’t seen much progress towards actually teaming these characters up. Thankfully, Charlie Cox is here to explain how Daredevil Season 2 organically leads to the group's formation.
He can’t do this alone. He’s been so adamant about being a lone wolf, about doing it himself, so I think that in order for him to get to The Defenders we needed this second season. We needed to see him be broken individually so that he can - he’s willing to form a team.
So it looks like Matt Murdock (a.k.a Daredevil) will be the one to Nick Fury all of these street-level heroes together into a cohesive unit. As the first Defender to get his own series, it makes sense that Daredevil would be the one to finally assemble them. He tried his hardest to defend the streets of Hell’s Kitchen on his own, but eventually learned that it’s simply not a job that one man can do alone. As Charlie Cox told Empire, the hero needs help. Mild spoilers for both seasons are below.
At the end of Daredevil’s first season, it wouldn’t necessarily have made sense to see Matt Murdock go out recruiting members of The Defenders. However, considering everything that takes place during the second season of Daredevil, we think it makes a great deal of sense. So much of that season felt predicated on him trying and failing to work as a lone wolf - including the tragic turns that marred his ass-kicking partnership with Elektra - that it now feels natural for him to try and form a larger team to protect the mean streets of New York. We even saw bits and pieces of that during the final moments of Daredevil Season 2, when he finally revealed the truth to a shocked Karen Page.
Of course, just because Matt Murdock seems willing to get a team of vigilantes started, that doesn’t mean everyone else will immediately jump on board. For example, Jessica Jones’ Netflix series proved definitively that the rough-around-the-edges private detective works well alone, and Luke Cage doesn't seem like one quick to embrace group-thought. The Defenders may be on the way, but we wholeheartedly expect some serious growing pains when they finally come together.
We will just have to wait and see how well The Defenders work together when Daredevil finally assembles them. The long-awaited Defenders Netflix series is expected to hit the streaming service sometime in 2017. To see what else is coming out in the coming months, check out our summer TV schedule.
