Netflix CCO: Marvel's Defenders Shows to Feel Grounded and Gritty

Anyone who ever thought the Marvel Knights imprint was just begging for a TV adaptation might be getting what they wanted for Christmas this year.

That's according to Netflix's Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, who told Empire Magazine (via ComicBookMovie) in the latest issue that the TV series his service is hosting, starting with 2015's Daredevil and moving all the way up through Marvel's The Defenders, will be a more grounded, gritty version of the Marvel Universe than the sleek, high-tech fantasy world most of the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have taken place in.

"The series will not be afraid to go darker than the film did," Sarandos said of Daredevil. "What we love about this particular set of heroes is that they're a little more down to Earth. Costume wise and also in that these are gritty crime stories, more in the streets than in the clouds."

It's a move that makes at least some sense; while fans may bemoan trying to fix something that isn't broken, Netflix could counter that making 13 episodes of television is very different from making a feature film -- and as Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has shown us, TV can often do best when it's more intimate and less focused on trying to be as big and bombastic as a feature film.

(Before the hate mail comes in: That's not a slam on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., just an acknowledgment that the show featured both kinds of episodes and one very obviously worked better than the other.)

All of that said, Sarandos hasn't ruled out the possibility that the Netflix shows, and characters from them, could cross over into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Asked whether Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and Jessica Jones would show up in a future Marvel movie, he said only that "It has definitely been talked about."