Marvel's The Defenders: The Many Challenges Facing the Showrunners

[Koby]

The biggest challenge for the showrunners of Marvel's The Defenders is going to be bringing together four separately established heroes into one cohesive story. Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez are currently writing scripts for the eight-episode first season of The Defenders, slated to premiere in 2017, and are having fun figuring out how Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist work together as a team.

 

Some of the characters have already started crossing paths in meaningful ways. Luke Cage was introduced in Jessica Jones: Season 1. Daredevil's Foggy Nelson is now working for Jessica Jones' Jeri Hogarth, who will also appear in 2017's Iron Fist. Claire Temple will have a key role in Luke Cage after appearing in both Daredevil and Jessica Jones. It's up to Petrie and Ramirez to keep all those connections straight.

 

"In the room we're talking about this character A and character C, and we're like, wait! Have they ever...? Wait, have they ever met each other? And then we'll be like, oh, they have so-and-so in common, and we're like, 'Oh, that's right,'" said Ramirez. "There's weirdly a family tree in our heads and also on the boards. We're like OK, so this person has crossed paths with this person, this person knows who this is and what this person is capable of, and keeping it all accurate has been one of the bigger challenges."

 

"Everyone's asked us, 'What is Defenders about?' and at the end of the day, what it's about is about four people who have an awesome responsibility that particularly want that responsibility, who are brought together to deal with something that no one else can or will," he said. "If that part works, then the rest, as they say, is cream cheese."

 

Expect The Defenders to remain set in New York City, like the previous Netflix series. "It's very much a New York story. It's easiest to talk about it as if it's a story of New York because it's street level. It's never an option for us in these shows to do the Defenders in space," said Ramirez.

 

The trickiest issue for Ramirez and Petrie has been figuring out the tone of The Defenders show, which brings together four tonally disparate series. Loeb teased that the foursome still will be dealing with the same human problems they have on their own shows, and won't suddenly be jumping to "Let's go fight the bad guys."

 

Loeb added, "The tone of the story is how do we best tell a story where Matt, Jessica, Danny, and Luke can interact with each other no matter what they're doing, and whether it is that they're going to be sitting around talking or whether it is that they're going to be fighting side by side. And what are those pairings like? What is Matt like when he's talking to Danny? What is Jessica like when she has to re-encounter Luke? Or meet a blind attorney who for some reason has the ability to be able to do things that make no sense at all, and who can call bulls**t on anybody that's in that group? So, that's really the challenge and the fun."

 

Once the Defenders do all intersect, the Marvel Netflix shows open themselves up to the same question that frequently gets leveled at the MCU films: why wouldn't [Superhero A] just call [Superhero B] for help? Petrie believes that question will be resolved once viewers see the Defenders in action.

 

"It's not about physical proximity; it's about what is that character need at that time," he said. "Jessica is not going to ask for help, you know? And if she does, why would she ask a lawyer?"

 

Ramirez noted, "We want to stay true to these characters and make sure they can all exist in their own worlds independently after they have the adventure of the Defenders. It's mostly just about making sure that everyone's arc is really satisfying on the show."

 

And what about the Punisher? There have been hints that, with Netflix greenlighting a standalone The Punisher series, Jon Bernthal's take on Frank Castle could pop up in The Defenders. Both Ramirez and Loeb stayed mum (Ramirez: "I cannot answer anything there"; Loeb: "You're going to have to wait and see"), with Loeb defending the decision to stay quiet by arguing it's protecting the experience for the fans.