By now, most of us will have binge-watched all eight episodes of Marvel’s The Defenders and are left wondering “so, what’s next?” Well, coming up we have a handful of follow-up seasons to all four of the Defenders’ solo shows, as well as a spinoff for The Punisher, who previously appeared on Daredevil.
While those are all well and good, it would be in the studio’s best interests to inject some new blood into this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to keep it fresh. By the time The Defenders season 2 rolls out – it hasn’t been confirmed just yet, mind you, but it’s surely a cert – we want to see the likes of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage team up with some different heroes.
But which new characters would be perfect fits for the gritty, grounded – but with a mystical edge – world of the Marvel/Netflix series? That remains to be seen, but it sounds like we’ll be finding out the answer to that question sooner than we thought, as The Punisher may introduce a brand new Marvel hero into the Netflix corner of the MCU. Or at least, that’s according to C.B. Cebulski, Senior Vice President of Creator and Content Development at Marvel.
Speaking at the Asia Pop Comic-Con, he said that “another Marvel hero may be showing up [in the Punisher].” Now, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it’s important to note that he simply says “another Marvel hero” and not, “a new Marvel hero.” As such, he could just mean that one of the already introduced Defenders will be joining Frank Castle, but somehow we don’t see that happening.
For one, it would be pretty surprising to see Luke, Danny or Jessica randomly show up here and probably wouldn’t make much sense. Of course, Daredevil already knows The Punisher and could potentially be involved, but given that The Defenders ended with a perfect set up for season 3 of the Man Without Fear’s solo series, which is going to adapt the “Born Again” arc, it’d be strange to now have this upcoming spinoff mess that up.
As such, we’re inclined to believe that Marvel may be getting ready to introduce a new hero into the Netflixverse, and while we have no indication of who that may be, there’s been a lot of speculation lately that Moon Knight might finally be about to enter the fold. Despite being a relatively obscure character, fans have been calling for him to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years now. Their hopes were briefly raised when a reference to a “news anchor in Cairo” in Captain America: The Winter Soldier was interpreted as a potential nod to the character, but that doesn’t seem to have led anywhere.
That’s probably for the best, too, as a dark, gritty hero like Moon Knight would be a poor match for the movies – but a natural bedfellow of the likes of Daredevil and the Punisher on Netflix. These shows have already pushed the boundaries of what sort of person can be classified as a hero – and Moon Knight would no doubt push that even further.
Whether he actually ends up making his debut in The Punisher or not remains to be seen, but it’s certainly possible and like we said above, the studio would be wise to start expanding this corner of the MCU.