As Marvel's Phase 4 is set to begin with the premiere of Black Widow in November, there's a chance that fans may see some of the characters from The Defenders making appearances throughout the phase. Phase 4 is gearing up to be very important for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, tasked with the massive undertaking of setting up the chess pieces for another epic culmination only a year after Avengers: Endgame brought the Infinity Saga to a spectacular close. Thus far, Marvel has unveiled a 6-film slate and 8 television series made for the Disney+ streaming service with a mixture of familiar faces as well as new characters.
The Disney+ shows, while highly anticipated, are not the first television outings by Marvel Studios. In fact, up until 2018, if fans wanted to see television content from Marvel they would more than likely turn to the gritty TV-MA shows on Netflix. Starting in 2015 up until their cancellations throughout 2018 and 2019, Netflix partnered with Marvel Studios to bring to life several street-level characters known as The Defenders: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and further down the road, The Punisher. These shows started out immensely successful, but as they went on, dwindling viewership and fluctuating reviews started to spell the end for the partnership.
Now, reports are swirling that the rights to each character will be returning to Marvel Studios over the course of the next two years, and fans are ecstatic. The Defenders' characters make up the foundation of grounded storytelling in the Marvel Universe, and when these characters return, there's no doubt that Marvel will waste little time in figuring out how to inject them back into the MCU.
Iron Fist
The child of a billionaire businessman reduced to orphanhood after his family is lost during a treacherous mountain expedition, young Danny Rand was discovered alone by the rulers of the mythical city of K'un-Lun. There, Danny was trained from a young age in a multitude of different combat techniques, mastering them all and eventually defeating the great dragon Shou-Lao to become the Immortal Iron Fist, defender of K'un Lun with the power to concentrate his chi into devastating attacks.
Iron Fist has been a staple of the street-level storytelling within the Marvel Universe, and his close friendship with Luke Cage has resulted in the two characters frequently receiving monthly titles together. Netflix's adaptation of the character premiered on March 17, 2017 and ran for two seasons, starring Finn Jones in the lead role. But Iron Fist received lukewarm reception from critics and audiences and was the first Netflix show to be cancelled on October 12, 2018. Because of the date of his cancellation, the rights to Iron Fist are set to return to Marvel on October 12, 2020.
Because of his proficiency in martial arts and his adjacency to the character, there's a very strong chance that Iron Fist could make his MCU debut in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which will now hit theaters on May 7, 2021. The main villain is confirmed to be The Mandarin (Tony Leung), a character who was previously impersonated by Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley) in Iron Man 3. Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Iron Fist have long been close friends in the Marvel Universe, training and bettering their skills alongside each other, so it would make perfect sense for the two of them to team up together to take down a villain such as The Mandarin.
Luke Cage
One of the first black characters to appear in comic books due to the blaxploitation craze that swept entertainment in the 70s, Luke Cage is a vigilante with unbreakable skin and superhuman strength, side-effects of strange medical testing that was performed on him against his will after being falsely imprisoned. Mike Colter brought the character to life starting with the first season of Jessica Jones, before being given his own series on September 30, 2016. Despite generally positive reviews, the series was cancelled on October 19, 2018, just four months after the release of the show's second season. The rights will revert back to Marvel two years to the day it was cancelled, on October 19, 2020.
While Luke's closest connections in the Marvel Universe are to Iron Fist and his wife, Jessica Jones (both fellow Defenders), he also has several relationships with other heroes. Cage has been around since the 70s, but the man responsible for his reputation in contemporary pop culture is comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis, who has always had an affinity for the character and re-contextualized him in his Alias series. He also pushed the character to a leadership position in his New Avengers book, which was the new premiere Avengers roster after the original team broke up as part of the Disassembled storyline in the late-90s/early-2000s. The roster was made up of heroes such as Luke Cage, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, Spider-Woman, Echo, and Wolverine. Depending on whether or not the MCU wants to create another Avengers roster similar to Brian Michael Bendis' iconic team, there's the possibility that we could see Luke Cage show up in a property like the Hawkeye TV series, or even perhaps Spider-Man: Homecoming 3 if they want to connect the street-level New York heroes to Spidey.
Jessica Jones
Speaking of Brian Michael Bendis, Jessica Jones' debut in the pages of Alias back in 2001 once again redefined the limits of what people believed could be done in the comic book medium. Originally intended to be Jessica Drew (a.k.a. Spider-Woman) before Bendis realized he could have more creative freedom by using a new character, Jones was a foul-mouthed, binge-drinking private investigator who had once been a young superhero by the name of Jewel. As Jessica solved more and more cases that brought her within the orbit of famous faces from the Marvel Universe (such as Luke Cage and Spider-Woman), readers began to discover more of Jessica's former life, which ended as the result of serious trauma inflicted on her at the hands of the Purple Man, a.k.a. Zebediah Kilgrave. The first season of Jessica Jones premiered on November 20, 2015, with Krysten Ritter playing the titular character, and ran for 3 seasons, tying with Daredevil as the longest-running Marvel Netflix series. However, since its cancellation on February 18, 2019, it's been confirmed that the series rights will return to Marvel on the same day in 2021.
Due to Jessica's career as a private investigator, she fits perfectly in the niche of Marvel superheroes who moonlight as part of the criminal justice system. And with it recently being confirmed that She-Hulk is one of the second wave of television shows planned for Disney+, it seems likely that Jessica could show up at some point in the series. Since there are rumors swirling that Jennifer Walters will already be a metahuman defense attorney at the start of the series, Jessica Jones and her particular brand of investigative deduction would fit right at home alongside the Jade Giantess' fourth wall-breaking adventures.
Daredevil
The first, and arguably the most consistently popular of The Defenders' characters, Daredevil is the alter-ego of defense lawyer Matt Murdock, who was blinded at a young age by radioactive waste. Matt's life quickly turned from bad to worse when his father, Battlin' Jack Murdock, was murdered by local gangsters after refusing to throw a boxing match. Absorbed by the orphanage system, Matt slowly began to realize that the loss of his sight afforded him new skills, such as heightened senses of smell, touch, taste, and hearing, as well as an entirely new one, a 360-degree "radar sense" that provided an echolocation-like display of his surroundings. Trained by the morally dubious ninja Stick, Matt went on to receive a law degree just like his father wanted, and he protects the innocent as a lawyer by day and as a brutal vigilante by night. With Charlie Cox playing the lead, the first season of Daredevil premiered on April 10, 2015 to widespread critical acclaim, and was quickly followed by two more seasons before being shockingly cancelled on November 29, 2018. Now, reports state that the rights to the character will revert back to Marvel on November 29, 2020, with some rumors circulating that the rights to the character may already be back in their possession.
One of the biggest mysteries surrounding Phase 4 of the MCU right now is just what Marvel has planned following the massive cliffhanger at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, in which Peter Parker's identity has been revealed to the world. Rumors and fan theories abound, implying everything from Stephen Strange using a bit of magic to make the information go away to Peter adopting different superhero identities like the classic 90s storyline Identity Crisis. However, the most popular fan theory by far suggests that Peter may be helped by none other than Matt Murdock himself, who would defend him in a court of law. If Matt were to appear in Spider-Man: Homecoming 3, there's also a chance that the movie could potentially start with him trying to hunt down the rogue Peter Parker. Whatever the case may be, fans can certainly take solace in the knowledge that Marvel is working tirelessly to regain the rights to some of their most complex and layered characters and that The Defenders will certainly be making appearances in the MCU moving forward.
