Unfortunately, it’s looking increasingly likely that The Defenders miniseries was a one-off special from Marvel and Netflix, and that the four street-level heroes – namely Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist – are too occupied tending to their own standalone shows for another TV crossover.
That was the message from Vice President of Original Content Cindy Holland last month, while earlier this week, Netflix changed the name of The Defenders Facebook page, all but confirming that we wouldn’t be seeing another season. But perhaps fans reacted too quickly when they took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
According to Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb, no one’s ruling out another run of the show just yet. Speaking to Variety, the producer explained that the only thing they’ve ever said is that at the moment, there aren’t any further plans. But that doesn’t mean they won’t ever return to the property.
“No, all we’ve ever said is that there are no plans right now [to do more],” Loeb told EW. “It doesn’t mean that it’s off the table. And it doesn’t mean that it even has to be with the original characters that were in the first Defenders.”
That last part is particularly interesting. As you no doubt know, The Defenders starred Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Mike Colter (Luke Cage) and Finn Jones (Iron Fist) and wrapped up the ongoing threat of the Hand, who’d been skulking around NYC since Daredevil season 1. As Loeb notes, though, those aren’t the only characters who you can base the show around.
In the comics, for instance, folks like Doctor Strange, Hulk and even Silver Surfer were Defenders at one point or another. As the producer tells EW, “There are lots of Avengers, and through that, you should be able to ascertain that there may be lots of Defenders.”
“No one at any time referred to them as ‘The Defenders’ — they didn’t wear a little ‘D’ on their belts, and they didn’t go to a building that had a big ‘Defenders’ [sign] in the air. They were four mismatched heroes who were joined by a lot of the other heroes that are in the stories that we do on Netflix, but that was that particular story.”
So, will The Defenders will always be remembered as a one-off special, or could we still see another outing? That remains unknown, but Jeph Loeb certainly seems to think there’s more life in the show and whether it’s the original four heroes or not, from the sounds of what he’s saying, it doesn’t appear that Marvel’s looking to call it quits after just one season.