With Jessica Jones now having aired its long-awaited third season, the MCU train has officially left the Netflix station. While the shows will remain on the service for the foreseeable future (as they were partly funded by Netflix), they’re now all cancelled. So, what’s next for the Defenders?
Over the course of her three seasons, Jessica Jones has picked up quite the fanbase, while Luke Cage has garnered praise as a strong African-American superhero and Daredevil is up there with some of Marvel’s biggest names. It seems unlikely that they’ll remain in limbo forever then, but could any of them ever return to the MCU proper?
Kevin Feige was pressed for answers while on the Spider-Man: Far From Home press tour and here’s his response to a question on which of the Netflix characters he’d most like to bring over to the MCU:
“I don’t know. There were a lot of great characters that were on those Netflix series, and I think there is a period of time…it’ll be a while before we could use any of them based on what the contracts were, so I’m not sure. And also, even answering that question is a spoiler. But there are some great Marvel characters there.”
His comment on the contracts confirms what we heard earlier this year, that the agreement between Marvel and Netflix contained a non-compete clause that prevents the former from using any of the Defenders characters for a period of time ranging from 18 months to two years. But that final comment about answering the question being a spoiler is very intriguing. If any answer he gives is indeed a spoiler, maybe it indicates that there are plans to bring these characters back into the fold at some point down the line – perhaps resurrecting their shows on the Disney Plus network.
In any case, it’d be nice to see their adventures acknowledged in some way by the wider MCU going forward. After all, these were initially billed as a key component of the franchise but have eventually turned into a vestigial organ with next to no connection to events like Thanos’ snap.
If you guys had to pick though, which Defenders would you bring to the MCU? For me, it has to be Jessica Jones, but it’d also be a real shame for Daredevil to stay trapped in development hell for so long. Let’s just hope Marvel and Netflix are able to work everything out here and we see the gang back on our screens sooner rather than later.
