Despite – or maybe because of – years of hype for the casts of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist coming together, The Defenders turned out to be unfortunately underwhelming when it finally arrived in 2017. That said, Marvel fans were keen to see more of the titular streetwise superhero team in the future. Sadly, however, all signs are pointing to the 8 episode mini-series being it.
But why is this? After all, Marvel and Netflix are churning out an increasing number of seasons for these four shows – plus The Punisher – every year, so why is another handful of episodes of The Defenders such a no-go? Well, it turns out that this is exactly the reason why the team-up show can’t return, as getting all four leads together interrupts the flow of production of the other series.
While speaking to Deadline, Netflix’s current Vice President of Original Content Cindy Holland talked about the difficulties of making and promoting The Defenders, saying:
“The biggest issue was the timing of production and launching of The Defenders, because what that meant is we had to shut down all of the shows, so all the actors could be available.”
On the plus side, crossovers between the shows are still possible. Luke Cage season 2 featured an awesome team-up episode with Iron Fist, and while Power Man won’t return the favor in IF season 2, Misty Knight will show up instead. It would be fun to see, say, Jessica Jones in Daredevil season 3 as well.
As for whether any new Marvel series could appear on the streaming service, Holland again said that this was not on the cards at the moment. However, she won’t rule it out for good, as it’s possible that a sixth series could materialize eventually.
“Though there is always an ongoing discussion about spinning off additional characters into additional properties.”
If you ask us, we wouldn’t bank on this happening, as Disney will likely want to keep future Marvel series for its own upcoming streaming service. However, if Netflix can keep crossing over the Defenders in various combinations, that should be enough to satisfy the fans, right?