Marvel Studios Recasting the Defenders Would Be a Huge Mistake

Let’s face it — the characters that popped up in The Defenders will join the film side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe at one point or another. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. With Disney purchasing 20th Century Fox — an acquisition which resulted in the live-action rights to the Fantastic Four and X-Men libraries reverting back to the Mouse — Marvel Studios is going to be pushing out more content than ever before.

When the Defenders do make their way into development at Marvel Studios, the Kevin Feige-led outfit has plenty of options. Do they hard reboot all characters and storylines? Do they do a soft reboot and keep the actors, but ditch the storylines? Or what if they kept everything the way it currently is? That would mean they’d keep the same actors while the seasons on Netflix would remain canon. Whatever route they decide to go, there’s one decision that stands out as the worst mistake the studio could make, and that’s recasting the entire cast of the various Defenders shows.

Recasting isn’t something new to the House of Ideas; after all, the studio grew tired of Edward Norton after just one movie and replaced him with Mark Ruffalo as one of the main Avengers. Even then, The Incredible Hulk didn’t have the following or fanbase the vast majority of these DefendersVerse shows have.

Look at Jon Bernthal’s role as Frank Castle. What other castings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been as spot-on? The Bernthal/Punisher casting is right on-par with Robert Downey Jr.’s role as Tony Stark. In fact, it might be better.

What about Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock? While some might think Murdock is a character that could be easily recast, Cox carried the most acclaimed show of the Netflix slate for three seasons, turning it into some of the best television Marvel has ever made.

The fact of the matter is, Marvel Studios has demonstrated again just have big of a well-oiled machine it really is a despite its demonstrated ability to recast with little to no negative impact, recasting the characters that appeared in Netflix’s Marvel shows would be a step in the wrong direction for the company.

All of the aforementioned Defenders can still be seen in their respective shows on Netflix.

What Defenders character do you think will pop up first? When and where? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!