Come 2018, Avengers: Infinity War will descend into theaters bringing with it one of, if not the biggest ensembles in the history of Marvel Studios. Director Joe and Anthony Russo are naturally keeping the specifics under wraps for the time being, but one question the refuses to relent is whether The Defenders will ever crop up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
If the small-screen heroes were to make the jump to the big screen, Infinity War seems like the best point of entry, and the Russo brothers have even entertained the prospect in the past. However that may be, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige remains wary of a potential crossover event. He’s not the only one, either, after Luke Cage himself, Mike Colter, expressed his own doubts some weeks ago.
Chatting to Collider at a press junket for Doctor Strange, Feige showered praise on Netflix’s catalog of superhero shows, but conceded that bringing over characters into the movie universe is a question of timing.
“I think it’s extremely impressive what Netflix has done and it will be the same answer I always give, which is, “It all depends on timing.” It all depends on how to do it because I don’t think what anybody wants to do is have such important characters show up for one second. Black Panther and Spider-Man to me are the high bar in Civil War of how you can bring in new characters into something. Vision and Ultron, Wanda and Pietro in Ultron. And it takes a lot of screentime, and it takes a lot of work. Infinity War has a lot of people in it already. So it just depends on how we could figure it out.”
Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist will join forces against Sigourney Weaver’s mysterious nemesis when The Defenders leaps onto Netflix late next year. Will Marvel’s TV ensemble make the jump from small screen to big? It’s a question that will no doubt emerge time and time again in the lead up to Avengers: Infinity War.
