After three years of build-up, The Defenders has now finally arrived and united all the major characters from previous Marvel-Netflix shows Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Just like the MCU movies led up to The Avengers before crossovers became more commonplace, fans are expecting the likes of Matt Murdock and Danny Rand to be able to hop over to their fellow heroes’ shows in future, too.
Talking to Collider, The Defenders showrunner Marco Ramirez seemed to confirm that this is a possibility. He explained that, while it isn’t up to him, he anticipates that “all bets are off” in terms of future crossovers and that they will happen more regularly.
“Now that they’ve all been cross-pollinated, it might be something that people have to think about. I don’t know. That’s more of a Marvel question. I have nothing to do with any of the other shows. But now that they’ve all met, all bets are off. They know each other, so you have to address that. I think that’s actually, as a storyteller, very exciting.”
So far, we’ve only seen supporting characters drift between the different shows. Most notably, Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple has appeared in all five series. Jeri Hogarth has also appeared in four of the five while Madame Gao has featured in three.
Going forward, though, fans really want to see Charlie Cox turn up in, say, Jessica Jones or Krysten Ritter to make a cameo in Luke Cage. Though he can’t promise anything, at least Ramirez seems pretty positive that these sort of crossovers are on the cards.
The showrunner also chatted about how much he enjoyed widening the cast of characters that he got to write for in The Defenders, with a couple of his favourites being Iron Fist’s Colleen Wing and Luke Cage‘s Misty Knight.
“I’ve been working in the Daredevil world for two years. The thought that I finally got to write for Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, these are characters that I’ve been loving and watching, as an audience member, for awhile. The supporting casts are just as integral to the story, and were just as much fun to write for.”
The Defenders is now available to stream on Netflix.
