The Defenders
The Defendershave assembled to stop an immortal organization from demolish New York - what ’s next ? Well , obviously standalone series for each of its four main hero ( and hopefully a spinoff forDaughters of the Dragon ) , but what about a crossing with their skyscraper - abode counterpart , The Avengers ? Everything is connected in the MCU , after all .
Or is it ? There ’s been a lot of fan arithmetic mean that way will cross in mega team - upAvengers : Infinity Warnext year ( or its sequel in 2018 ) - specially as it ’s lay so soon afterThe Defendershave first interacted - but that ’s wishful mentation at skillful , and if we ’re being rational a rather erroneous assumption . The succeeder of the Marvel / Netflix enterprise , building four tonally disparate series then bringing them together , can not be understate , yet it ’s becoming clear they ’re fabulously separate from the rest of the world .
The early hope of the MCU was that everything was kick the bucket to descend together - in the movies , Phase 1 led toThe Avengers , Phase 2Age of Ultron , andInfinity Waris the climax of the preceding tenner - but as as it ’s got big and heavy ( together , all the films , television shows and supplementary materialrun longer than a week ) the onus has lurch to be more about subsist in the same universe over verbatim link . Indeed , the TV show ' references to the vainglorious cinematic picture ( andAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.a few pick cameo ) have give way to simply telling substantial mortal stories;Daredevilexisted in the verbatim fallout of the Battle of New York , whereas two years laterThe Defendersis preponderantly influenced by just the late seasons ( with only minimal acknowledgement of the Incident and self-aggrandizing squad ) .
At this point , it ’s unlikely we ’ll ever see the two squad descend together . Let ’s take a look at why .
Can It Work With The Actor’s Contracts and Schedules?
permit ’s get the classic Marvel vexation -actor ’s contracts- out of the elbow room first . Technically there ’s nothing legally block The Defenders portion out the screen with The Avengers . In fact , that was a consideration made early on ; Charlie Cox has say that his contract does have a movie option in there . However , that feels like out-of-door snapshot future - proofing rather than expressed intention ( and as we ’ll see concisely , the future has changed ) .
But legality is only one side . Elizabeth Henstridge , who plays Simmons onS.H.I.E.L.D.,talked about how thedifference in yield length- movies take years , a show sometimes weeks - much does n’t let for crossovers ( this is also why transferring any of the Arrowverse into the DCEU would be foxy ) ; the primary commitment override it . This is a little different for a Netflix series which are shot in a more movie - like way with a exclusive release date for all episodes , but it present a major barrier , specially when you consider a general reluctance to do so .
Marvel Studios Chief Kevin Feige Has No Interest In The Defenders
The whole Marvel / Netflix deal is somewhat much built on Marvel not desire to use these characters . When Fox ’s choice on the Daredevil rights ran out in the early 2010s , Kevin Feige attempt to broker a deal where theykept the Man Without Fear in substitution for the Silver Surfer and Galactus ; these cosmic characters were more important to where Marvel Studios was heading than a blind attorney - vigilante . This failed and so Marvel terminate up with Daredevil ’s rights despite there being no desire to bring him into the MCU . The same feeling presumably go for Jessica Jones , Luke Cage , Iron Fist , The Punisher et al who are either too mature or unnoticeable to realize on the grownup screenland as the MCU currently engage , go to them being used elsewhere .
Of of course , that was five old age ago when Daredevil mainly conjured up images of Ben Affleck ( and Batman Christian Bale ) - opinions could have changed . But that initial disinterest only lay the base for what was to come .
Marvel Studios And Marvel TV Are Now Separate
It may have at once been the case that the long - term goal of the shows was to incorporate things more tightly.S.H.I.E.L.D.was ab initio more directly mold by picture show event and startedsetting upInhumanswhen they were lay out for the silver grey projection screen proper ( not just a short IMAX streamlet ) , whileAgent Carterfilled in a key gap in the timeline . But that did n’t account for a major behind - the - scene work shift .
Kevin Feige had reportedly been at dunderhead with Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter , renowned as a reclusive penny - pincher with a branding centre greater than his storytelling one for tenner , and around the end of Phase 2 ultimately had enough . TheMarvel Studios ’ Creative Committee was close down , with Feige and Marvel Studios report directly to Disney and Perlmutter sustain control of all other divisions - comics , merchandise and , of course of study , TV . Overall it ’s hard to call this a unsound move - the general esteem for Marvel Studio ’s output and its addressing of previously embedded consequence has shifted positively ( Iron Fist ’s failure has no verbatim bearing on the film sectionalisation ) - but it has created space .
The effects of bad pedigree aside , this mean that the originative decision made for movies and telly are entirely main , with fiddling synergism in where the two wings of the universe go . This is why the connective tissue between show and movies has sabotage in late years ; make everything line up - both in - universe and in price of actor ’s schedules - is a gigantic task . Avengers : Infinity War ’s writer even stated this as a major reason why they were n’t including any Defenders ; they have no way of life of knowing where Matt Murdock , Jessica Jones et al will be when the film is set to be released .
It ’s by all odds possible to work through these issues , although as we ’ve see withSpider - Man : Homecoming ’s timeline flub , observe a consistent canyon is concentrated enough with a smattering of films a class ; Marvel Studios has enough spinning plates at the moment .
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The latest parole from Kevin Feige is that there areno current plans to go with Marvel telly . He ’s been able to broker a great deal with Sony , yet fairly ironically seems loth to work with Marvel Entertainment . And the more metre the passes that stance is only going to get harder to reverse .
It ’s not unfathomable that Marvel may try and work in a hush-hush surprise cameo for the team intoAvengers 3or4 , but a abbreviated moment and a few more verbal connections is really all we can hope for . Better get used to your standaloneDefenders .
