Mike Colter Reveals Luke Cage’s Role In The Defenders

Last Year, Mike Colter starred in the Netflix series Marvel’s Luke Cage. Colter had already debuted in the role of Luke Cage in 2015’s Jessica Jones. In 2017, Colter will reprise the role for Marvel’s The Defenders, which will bring Cage and Jones (Krysten Ritter) together with fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe vigilantes Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) to form the titular street-level superhero team.

Next: Charlie Cox Reveals Daredevil’s State In The Defenders

The team has no antecedent in the Marvel Comics Universe. Marvel has published comics about a superhero team called the Defenders, but that version of the Defenders featured a different team composition and mission statement. That means that each of these Marvel Cinematic Universe Defenders will be defining their role in the team for the very first. Colter says Cage’s is that of “the conciliator.”

“I’m the guy, the wisdom,” Colter tells Entertainment Weekly. “If you want to make sure something works, run it up the flagpole.”

That’s a description that Marvel’s The Defenders showrunner Marco Ramirez seems pretty comfortable with. “Luke is someone who’s, in a very mature way, compartmentalized his life.”

Marvel’s Luke Cage left Cage in a peculiar position for someone who is about to make some new friends. Cage had allowed himself to be taken into custody and returned to Seagate Prison, the same prison he had escaped from prior to the events of Marvel’s Jessica Jones.

“It’s safe to say Cage is not going to spend the entire season of The Defenders behind bars,” Colter laughs. “He’s been able to come clean and deal with his past… The difficulty with Cage [in the first season] is that he has this secret, he has this thing that he’s been trying to run away from and deal with, and that’s a big burden to bear. That weighs on you, that changes who you are as a person. Now that that’s out of the way, I think we can give him a different approach to life.”

Ramirez notes that Cage is the one Defender whose existence and identity is widely known to the public. “He’s openly walking around as a hero,” Ramirez says. “There’s a lot of pressure that comes with that.”

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Fans will experience Luke Cage’s new life director in Marvel’s The Defenders, coming to Netflix in 2017.