The INSIDER Summary:
- Luke Cage and Jessica Jones team up with Daredevil and Iron Fist for an epic show down in the new season of "The Defenders."
- The season will consist of eight episodes.
- "The Defenders" will show the four characters meeting for the first time when their solo adventures bring them together.
Just a few years ago, Marvel audiences didn’t yet know Luke Cage or Jessica Jones, and now, they’re about to team up with Daredevil and Iron Fist for one epic showdown in the Big Apple.
When the four Netflix heroes unite in "The Defenders" to take on a new new threat, it’s sure to be one fun fight with the martial arts skills of Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Danny Rand (Finn Jones) combined with the sheer strength of Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter). The four characters will meet for the first time when all of their solo adventures find them converging on one big mystery. We don’t know all of the details just yet, but we do know a lot about just where the story stands when the show picks up about six months after the events of "Iron Fist."
The premiere is just around the corner, but not everyone is caught up on the goings on in the Netflix end of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. If you need a refresher, or if there’s one Marvel hero whose show you haven’t watched yet, we’ve got you covered. You’ll find everything you need for a crash course, with The Defenders: 15 things you need to know before watching.
"The Defenders" includes far more than the core four
The title characters in each of the previous Marvel Netflix series might make up the team known as the Defenders, but they aren’t the only familiar faces appearing in the series.
"Daredevil’s" main characters Karen Page and Foggy Nelson will be putting in appearances, while Malcolm Ducasse and Trish Walker will be involved from "Jessica Jones," Misty Knight from "Luke Cage," and Colleen Wing from Iron Fist. Considering Foggy and Karen both have high profile jobs in New York now, Malcolm became Jessica’s assistant at the tail end of her series, and the latter three ladies all possess serious fighting skills, those probably aren’t a huge surprise.
Also appearing? Jeri Hogarth and Claire Temple. Claire has become the glue holding the Netflix shows together, appearing in every season of every series so far, but Jeri has also crossed over from "Jessica Jones" into "Iron Fist" and "Daredevil" at this point, so expect to see plenty of them.
Oh, and Madame Gao will be along for the ride as well!
Only one Defender has mystical powers
Though each of the four title characters have their own special abilities, most of them are the results of science fiction events. Daredevil’s abilities emerged after an accident with toxic chemicals, Jessica Jones discovered hers after an accident as well (though her series hinted that they could be the result of experimentation), and Luke Cage gained his thanks to some illegal experiments going on while he was in prison.
It is only Danny Rand who can claim magic as the root of his abilities. Danny, who battled a dragon and became the Iron Fist, has advanced martial arts skills and some serious powers in his one hand – as long as he can focus. Given that the trailers for the series seem to indicate some other mystical goings-on, Danny might wind up being more important in "The Defenders" than anyone first thought.
Stick's war is here
"Daredevil" fans will remember that the title character’s mentor was spending an awful lot of time training him for a “war” that Matt didn’t think was actually coming. Stick seemed to indicate that the war involved The Hand’s Black Sky in the second season of the series, and Matt probably thought any possible wars were behind him once he dealt with ninjas climbing hospital walls and draining the blood of innocent people in building basements.
Not so fast.
Following "Daredevil" season two, if viewers tuned in for "Iron Fist," they saw that The Hand was still plenty operational, and Colleen Wing was even almost set up for some blood draining of her own. The Hand was very much still out there and preparing for a fight.
The war that Stick has always alluded to, and that Colleen’s students were seemingly preparing for, is finally coming to New York. Just what exactly it will entail, we don’t know yet, but Stick seems to think the four Defenders are the only ones who stand a chance of bringing it to an end.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider