Defenders EPs Address [SPOILER] Buried Under New York City

The latest Netflix series tied up a lot of loose ends and disparate threads from the various Marvel series with the revelation of the Hand’s intentions for New York City.

Spoilers for Marvel’s The Defenders below.


Weaving threads from Madame Gao’s mysterious drug trade, a giant hole in the middle of New York City, the resurrection of Elektra, various villains returning from the dead, and the mystical city of K’un-Lun, The Defenders finally revealed what the villainous cabal was truly after.

And it all has to do with a giant dragon skeleton buried under New York City.

“The idea of that was that there had always been this kind of mystery that the Hand can bring people back from the dead,” Defenders EP Marco Ramirez said to EW, “but we never knew exactly how, and it made sense to connect the life-force idea of the chi in the Iron Fist to the idea of the life force [the Hand members] use for various purposes, so we’re just saying it’s dragon bone that they use, that that’s the substance. That felt like the cleanest way to tie everything in.”

Ramirez clarified that the dragon skeleton was not Shou-Lao the Undying, but one of many dragons that used to roam our planet.

“And it’s been set up since Daredevil season 1; Gao operates in the background of New York with drugs made from that ground into powder,” Ramirez said. “It felt like we could make back alley drug deals in New York and dragon mythology all part of the same story, so that was my way of trying to tie them all in.”

Previous series have alluded to the Hand’s machinations, most notably the giant hole that would become Midland Circle from Daredevil Season Two. While some might make the connection that the location discovered underneath New York City would be K’un-Lun, Ramirez said “that’s a question for the Iron Fist showrunner, not me.”

He said that his goal was figuring out a conflict that would bring the heroes of New York against the ancient organization.

“It’s like, we knew in season 1 of Daredevil that Nobu wanted a specific building in New York City, and that was why it was important for the Hand to get their hands on this one building, and then in season 2, we revealed that they weren’t building up, they were building down. What they were digging toward we didn’t know, so when we started on Defenders, we knew it would be Defenders versus the Hand, and we didn’t know what they were digging for, and we could come up with anything, you know? It’s kind of a fun thing that TV writers do. Like on Lost, the whole season is about the Hatch, but what’s in the Hatch? We’ll figure that out next season! That’s how these things happen.”

The Defenders is now streaming on Netflix.

Marvel’s The Defenders follows Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones). A quartet of singular heroes with one common goal – to save New York City. This is the story of four solitary figures, burdened with their own personal challenges, who realize they just might be stronger when teamed together.