Marvel and Netflix knew that they were in for the longhaul with green-lighting essentially four superhero shows set in the same Cinematic Universe as The Avengers, but with a darker twist. It's been so far, so great for the comics/film production company as the first two seasons of Daredevil have gone off to great acclaim, as well as the almost unrelated first season of Jessica Jones. Once Luke Cage, a show based on a character introduced in Jessica Jones will hit Netflix on September 30th. After that, there will be Iron Fist series in 2017, not to mention a team-up of all of them in The Defenders.
I mentioned earlier that so far Daredevil and Jessica Jones have very little in common. In fact, except for the fact that the viewer knows that these shows take place in the same universe, these shows are very different, stylistically. Daredevil is more of the traditional crimefighter superhero show, but it does explore themes of personal guilt and the villainy not seen on other films or TV shows. Jessica Jones is really about an ex-superhero, and dealing with PTSD as well as being successfully stalked by the villain of the show.
Luke Cage has an interesting blaxploitation look to it, with Mike Colter in the lead role, taking on criminals in Harlem. Digital Spy reports that TV veteran Alfre Woodard will be playing local Harlem politician Mariah Dillard and her criminal cousin of Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes, played by Mahershala Ali. Then there is Misty Knight, played by Simone Missick, as well as Theo Rossi playing a small-time thug named Shades.
So, with Luke Cage showing up in September and kicking some serious butt, 2017 is also going to be big in the Netflix Marvel universe. Iron Fist will soon premiere, and there is not really much known about that, other than it is based on the karate superhero with the mystical punch.
Once he appears, fans will really want the four superheroes to team up like The Avengers, and The Defenders certainly looks like it could take a while to produce. There is a report that The Defenders could arrive as late as 2018 according to Screen Rant, which leaves the new odd man out for the Marvel Netflix TV universe with The Punisher.
The Punisher is an anti-hero played with a lot of sympathy from Jon Bernthal, and it this criminal-shooting vigilante was introduced in Season 2, with a plan to possibly give him his own show that should come to fruition soon.
As far as getting all these heroes together in the same room, that could be a daunting task. It feels like Daredevil Season 2 has been laying pipe for stories dealing with the Hand, a deadly group of ninjas that could be given more background on The Defenders. Generally, team-ups of superheroes in comic books, TV, and films require some big villain to unite the heroes so they won't fight each other.
Seriously, it usually works that way. Generally, the heroes meet up, find some disagreement to fight about, and then cooler heads prevail and they realize they are on the same side. Then they go find the real bad guy who is pulling the strings to make them fight each other, and fight this mastermind. It would be great if the mastermind would be Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin. There is a lot of potential there as he has sworn a lot of vengeance against Nelson and Murdock.
