10 Awesome Moments From The Defenders Trailer

The crossover TV series long in the making is almost here. After five seasons of four separate shows, Marvel and Netflix are about to bring us the much-anticipated The Defenders miniseries, which will unite the likes of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. With just a handful of months to go until it arrives on the streaming service, Marvel has dropped the first full-length trailer for the show. Thankfully, and as expected, it's a fantastic preview that whets our appetite just enough without giving anything too major away. We get action, humour and yes, the team-up we've all been waiting for. Cutting straight to the chase, the moody promo begins by shedding some light on how that superpowered quartet comes together in the first place. Locked away in a holding cell with only Simone Missick’s Misty Knight for company, Krysten Ritter’s smart-ass private eye finds an unlikely savior in Charlie Cox’s whip-smart attorney, Matt Murdock. By day, he’s one of the finest lawmen in the city, but by night he transforms into the devil of Hell’s Kitchen, quietly tracking his prey (read: armed goons and thugs) from the safety of the shadows. Elsewhere, the remaining two Defenders only come into contact through Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple – a mainstay of Marvel’s small-screen universe, having cropped up in all four standalone series thus far – and after some fisticuffs, Danny Rand and Luke Cage inevitably join forces to become the Heroes for Hire. By now, we're sure you've seen it - and if you haven't, you can give it a watch above - so why not join us as we unpack its secrets and look back on 10 of the best moments from the first trailer for Marvel's The Defenders. 10) Jessica's In Trouble With The Law (Again) The trailer opens with a low-key crossover but hey, at least it's still a crossover. It also gives us an interesting to hint as to where the heroes will be at the start of the series and how they'll come together. We begin with Jessica Jones doing what she does best: getting into trouble. "You have interrupted a citywide investigation," says a familiar voiceover, as Jessica is handcuffed in a police interrogation room. "You stole evidence from my crime scene. And you got my one lead killed." This is, of course, Misty Knight, Harlem's best cop, last seen in Luke Cage. She always had a prickly relationship with the Hero of Harlem, so it's no surprise that her and Jessica won't be getting along. Ms. Jones' unorthodox methods of detective work have landed her in trouble in the past, but this looks to be one big mess she's gotten herself into. Thankfully, a rather brilliant lawyer is on hand to help her out... 9) "Who The Hell Are You?" Yes, it's Matt Murdock of Nelson and Murdock, Avocados at Law! After the long, slow build-up to The Defenders across five seasons of television, it appears that the team of superheroes surprisingly first come together without any fanfare. "Jessica Jones, stop talking," orders Matt, as he bursts into the interrogation room. "Who the hell are you?" bites back Jessica. "I'm Matthew Murdock," smiles back the lawyer. "I'm your attorney." From the look Jessica shoots Misty, it seems she's not impressed. Despite its low-key nature, it's an exciting scene and a clever subversion of the uber-dramatic first meeting between Daredevil and Jessica Jones that we might've been expecting. Jessica's reaction is also brilliantly typical for the character. Anyone else would be pleased to have someone throw them a lifeline in that tough situation. Not our Jessica, though. 8) Luke Cage, Back In Harlem But what about the other half of the Defenders? Don't worry, we're checking in on them, too. It seems that Luke Cage has managed to finagle his way out of Seagate Prison once again, as we catch up with him as he's clearly returning to Harlem after a stint away. We see him take the bus through the neighbourhood, with a quick glimpse at Pop's old barbershop. Pretty quickly, it seems, he'll be reunited with Claire Temple, who asks him some big questions about what he wants to do now. "How does being Harlem's hero allow you to live an actual life?" Ever the hero, Luke replies: "Right now, I just wanna help people." This is one of the most important moments in the trailer, as it addresses one of the big questions we had going into The Defenders - the question of how Luke was going to get out of Seagate and return to Harlem. 7) Power Man vs. Luke Cage: Dawn of Defense As the rules of superhero crossovers dictate, the participating characters must have a punch-up before they realize they don't need to be enemies and eventually team up. That tried and tested tradition is completely in place in The Defenders, as the trailer teases. Meanwhile, we learn that Danny Rand and Colleen Wing (the latter is only seen for the briefest of seconds here) are still going about their superhero business. Possibly due to Claire Temple bringing them together, or maybe just because they're going after the same person, Luke Cage also turns up here. And as expected, Power Man and the Immortal Iron Fist don't get along right off the bat. First up, Danny's martial arts don't work against Luke's steely frame, though we find out that the former's glowing fist can give him a mean wallop in the face. Thanks to Claire's reminder that they're on the same side, however, they begin to see eye to eye. 6) Stick Plays Nick Fury She might help the future (well, we hope) Heroes for Hire come together, but Claire Temple isn't the main instigator of the Defenders joining forces. No, the Nick Fury role in this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is being filled by Daredevil's mentor Stick. "You four," says Stick, before he proceeds to give some catchy descriptions of each of the heroes as we see some clips of them in action (including our only shot of the Daredevil costume in the trailer). "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen. The smart ass detective. The righteous ex-con. The kid with the glowing fist..." This moment is reminiscent of the teaser trailer released for the show back at last year's San Diego Comic-Con, which featured Stick's voiceover complaining that these four heroes couldn't even save themselves. If that line ends up being used in the show, we imagine it would come after this scene, as Stick seems more hopeful about the gang here. 5) "The War For New York Is Here" After the introductions are dealt with, Stick gets to the important matters: what the four heroes need to come together to fight. As we all predicted, it looks like the main threat of The Defenders will indeed be that evil ninja clan The Hand. Stick's involvement makes a lot of sense here, then, seeing as he's part of (one of) The Hand's sworn enemies, The Chaste. "The war for New York is here," Stick explains as - shock horror - we see a repeat of the shot seen at the end of Daredevil season 2, as The Hand unveil Elektra's corpse. We'll come back to that in a moment... After that, things get serious. From what we can tell, a massive sonic wave hits the city, for what reason we have no idea. We see cars being impacted by the wave and then the four heroes are swept off their feet as chairs fly up into the air around them. Is this the first stage of The Hand's plan, or something else entirely? 4) Meet Alexandra Reid It soon becomes clear who's behind the sonic attack, as we cut to a figure overlooking the streets of New York from her balcony. As the figure turns, revealing an icy smile on her face, we see that this is Sigourney Weaver. As was revealed months ago, the legendary actress is joining the MCU to play Alexandra Reid, the primary antagonist. Previously, it was unknown whether Reid would be connected to The Hand or operate as a standalone villain. From what we gather here, though, it looks like she's another leader of the clan. We definitely know she has some heavies to do her dirty work, as we see a brief clip of what looks like a board room meeting turn into a sparring session. The men in business suits around the table whip out weapons and attack the Defenders. Alexandra is also a dab hand at sinister threats. "The more connections you have," she coldly states to Jessica and the others, "the easier it will be to break you." Seeing Weaver play a supervillain is one of the most exciting things about The Defenders and thankfully, she looks brilliant in the role. 3) Elektra Returns So, what was that about Elektra? Yes, that recap of the Daredevil season 2 ending isn't all we get of Matt Murdock's former flame in this trailer. Just after Alexandra is revealed for the first time in the preview, we briefly see someone who's unmistakably Elektra taking down a ring of opponents. This looks like a practice fight, however, so we imagine that The Hand have resurrected her to act as their soldier and that this is just a glimpse at her training to fight the Defenders. Sure enough, we soon see Elektra sparring with Matt himself. Going by her stoic expression - and the fact that she's fighting the man she loved before she died - we imagine that Elektra's personality didn't make the return trip when she came back to life. She's now completely the Black Sky, The Hand's fabled secret weapon. It's also revealed that Elektra's got a new costume here. It's far from her scantily-clad number from the comics, but it's a lot more red than the black and red outfit she wore in Daredevil season 2, which should please fans. 2) Four-Way Hallway Fight! A fan-favourite hallmark of Marvel's Netflix shows so far is the hallway fight scene. The first one came in Daredevil's first season and was instantly so iconic that each subsequent season has tried to replicate it. It's proven tough to beat the original, though, but we might be about to find a new winner. As the trailer builds to a climax, we join the four Defenders as they fight their enemies in - you've got it - a hallway. We only see a few seconds of it here, but it looks set to be a terrific scene. We get to see the four heroes fighting as one, with each taking on their own goon with their own unique styles. This is exactly what we're watching the show for, of course, and this will likely be the equivalent punch-the-air moment as the 'ring of heroes' shot at the end of The Avengers. Before the fighting breaks out, the trailer also gives us another gem between Matt and Jessica that we have to mention. As Matt covers his face, Jessica tells him "you look stupid." Matt shrugs and replies: "It's your scarf." It's a fun little scene, but also a nice reminder that Matt Murdock's alone in this band of fighters as he's really the only one who has a secret identity. 1) "We Make Quite The Team" Speaking of The Avengers, the trailer ends with a fun bit of banter between the heroes as they grab a bite to eat. Marvel fans will no doubt be reminded of the post-credits scene of the 2012 blockbuster in which Tony Stark takes his team out for some shawarma in the aftermath of the Battle of New York. In The Defenders, the gang have gone out for some Chinese food - we imagine billionaire Danny Rand will pick up the bill. Indeed, it looks like Mr. Rand is the one who's most enthused by their team-up. "We make quite the team," he beams, before Jessica shoots him down. In a similar scene to Stick's introductory sequence earlier, Danny runs through the team's USPs - e.g. Luke is bulletproof, Matt is a blind ninja, Jessica is.... whatever she is - as we get some clips of them in action. Jessica, once again, isn't impressed, which causes Luke to laugh. One of the big worries we had about the show is that the four heroes wouldn't gel when placed together. This scene promises us though that the Defenders coming together should be just as much fun as we'd hoped. Roll on August 18th!