The Defenders Showrunner Reveals How Each Character Is Balanced

When a handful of characters come together for crossovers in the world of live-action comic book adaptations, fans are filled with hype to see different powers and personalities interacting in movies or on their television screens.

However, when characters are forced to share screen time, it is possible some of the traits which make fans fall in love with them in their standalone titles can be left out. For The Defenders, this won’t be the case. The Defenders showrunner Marco Ramirez revealed as much during a chat with ComicBook.com at San Diego Comic Con, explaining how each of Marvel’s Netflix characters and their respective tones will be balanced in his series.

“First of all, I would say the iconic, kind of, Daredevil fight is the one man against a room full of people fight, right?” Ramirez said. “So just by their virtue, the way we’re going to shoot these things, we can’t shoot the four of them fighting a room full of people the same way we would shoot a Daredevil fight. So, motion-ally it kind of becomes very different.”

“This is about group dynamics, this is about these characters. For us and for the fight choreographers, and Jessica [Henwick] knows this as well as anybody, the fight choreography… each character on these shows fights very distinctly and very differently. I remember season two of Daredevil, we had many conversations about how Daredevil fought differently than Frank Castle fought. It’s almost like an extension of language, the way that they dance in the world, the way that they perform violence is very different. So it’s really just about this ballet, or rather this symphony of all these different instruments. The way that Luke Cage throws a punch is very different than the way Jessica Jones throws a punch, is very different than the way Danny throws a punch. I hope that answered some of your question.”

With each character being studied individually, they will maintain the traits which define them, even when it comes to action. These are all choices made by Ramirez and the team on The Defenders, with no decision coming down to help the series fit the larger puzzle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or its traditional formatting.

“To be honest, at no point did anybody come and say, you know, ‘This is the algorithm that works, you need to make this fit,’” Ramirez said. “They’re a very artist-friendly company. So, we just came and we said, the writer’s room and Marvel, I was able to say, ‘This is the story we want to tell.’ And nobody ever said, ‘Well, by this minute mark this thing needs to happen, because our scientists told us…’ You know. They’re very artist-friendly.”

Marvel’s The Defenders is developed by Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez. The miniseries will also feature Sigourney Weaver as the villain, Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), and several recurring guest stars from Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Marvel’s Luke Cage, and Marvel’s Iron Fist, including Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse, Simone Missick as Misty Knight, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth, Scott Glenn as Stick, Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, and Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing.

Marvel’s The Defenders premieres on Netflix on Aug. 18, 2017.

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