Daredevil: Born Again will see the world of Netflix’s Daredevil series getting placed inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with stars like Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk/Kingpin), and Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle/The Punisher) all free to roam a sandbox that could now see them run into the likes of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, or any of the Avengers (who are still around).
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There’s been one big question about this new era of MCU stories inspired by the former Marvel-Netflix era: are the rest of “The Defenders” also coming over to the MCU? Since Born Again began production there have been rumors that actress Krysten Ritter could return as Jessica Jones (as soon as making a cameo in Daredevil: Born Again), with additional rumors stating that Mike Colter’s Luke Cage could also return. That’s only left the question of Finn Jones as Danny Rand/Iron Fist, one of the more tricky characters that Marvel has had to juggle.
Marvel Studios Exec Teases The Defenders’ Return
Marvel Studios’ head of streaming, television, and animation, Brad Winderbaum, was recently doing press interviews for Daredevil: Born Again. Winderbaum was surprisingly straightforward in his answer, explaining to EW that over at Marvel Studios “we are very much exploring” the idea of bringing the Netflix Defenders squad into the MCU.
“I can’t say much, but I’ll tell you that it’s so exciting to be able to play in that sandbox,” Winderbaum said. “Obviously we don’t have the unlimited storytelling resources like a comic book… It’s dealing with actors and time and the massive scale of production in order to build a cinematic universe, especially on television. But I can just say that all those variables taken into account, it is certainly something that is creatively extremely exciting and that we are very much exploring.”
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The Defenders limited series was released on Netflix in the late summer of 2017, acting as a culminating event for Marvel’s Netflix series, which first launched with Daredevil Season 1 in 2015. The story of Defenders was spun out of story elements in Daredevil and Iron Fist, which saw The Hand Ninja cult launch an invasion of NYC using Matt Murdock’s love interest Elektra Natchios (Élodie Yung) as a vessel for the “Black Sky” entity, making her the ultimate killer. Daredevil recruited Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist to stop Elektra, The Hand, and their leader Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), in a battle that left both Daredevil and Elektra buried under a building, presumed dead. The various team members of The Defenders (including Daredevil) would each see their solo adventures continue in their respective shows, but the team was essentially a one-and-done thing.
The MCU has every opportunity to make The Defenders a regular staple of its universe. The team occupies a street-level space that the MCU sorely needs to spend more time playing in: grounded stories that are still able to provide that sense of a larger interconnected universe. The only hiccup is that several of the actors from The Defenders (Colter and Jones) have been more reluctant to feed fans’ hopes of returning for a run in the MCU; that said, we all know how and why those sentiments can change when Disney and Marvel Studios come calling.
The Defenders limited series can be streamed on Disney+. Daredevil: Born Again will premiere on Disney+ on March 4th.
