Sigourney Weaver says her villain in The Defenders sees herself more as the heroine of her own story. After spending two years setting up all four of its main heroes with their own standalone TV series, Marvel and Netflix are preparing to bring together Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox), and Danny Rand/Iron Fist (Finn Jones) for the first time ever next month in The Defenders. A culmination of everything that has come before it, The Defenders promises to be an event series the likes of which superhero fans have never seen on the small screen before.

But after solving some serious problems all on their own in the previous seasons, The Defenders has the unique challenge of making sure the series' conflict is believably dangerous enough, to warrant The Defenders coming together for it. And it was clear from the moment that The Defenders cast Sigourney Weaver as the villainous Alexandra, just what kind of a threat the titular team of heroes would be facing in the upcoming season.

It's the age old belief, however, that the best villains are the ones who see themselves as the hero of their own story. And during a recent roundtable at this year's San Diego Comic-Con (H/T CinemaBlend), Weaver opened up about how Alexandra sees herself as a heroine in her own right, even amidst all the chaos she's causing on the streets of Hell's Kitchen:

"I was doing an interview earlier and I kept referring to her as a heroine, which to me is like another word for woman character. I said I think she does feel it in her story like she's a heroine, because she doesn't see things as black and white. She sees all the different colors and possibilities because she's in business. And I don't think businesspeople, especially on her scale, care about these niceties of things. If it's a fossil fuel company, they want to just keep going, regardless of all these people whimpering about the earth. So I based her on real people I know who think like that."

While the full origins or motivations behind Alexaandra'a actions in The Defenders have yet to be completely revealed, the character's alliances have shed an interesting light on the entirety of the upcoming series. And with many fans, Alexandra is shaping up to be the kind of villain that The Defenders needed in order be taken seriously, which is to say that The Defenders looks as though it has managed to find a role worthy of an actress as legendary and iconic as Weaver.

Early reviews for The Defenders are pointing towards the upcoming Marvel and Netflix series being a success amongst fans and critics with just a little less than a month left to go until it's finally released on the streaming platform. And considering how many talks there have already been about The Defenders' possible future after this season, it'll be interesting to see just what Marvel and Netflix's plans for The Defenders turn out to be, outside of just the conflict of its first season. Either way, whether she's positioned as a serious player again after the events of the new season or not, Weaver's Alexandra will almost surely be included in those plans, in some form or another.

Marvel’s The Defenders premieres on August 18, 2017 on Netflix.  Marvel’s The Punisher premiers later in 2017, and additional seasons of DaredevilJessica Jones, and Luke Cage are expected to air in 2018.

MORE: Iron Fist is a ‘Whole Different Character’ When The Defenders Ends

Source: CinemaBlend