Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones – four of Netflix’s street-level heroes who were conspicuously absent from Avengers: Infinity War, despite the fact that they all reside in New York City.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo have addressed this dilemma before, of course, stating that, while good in theory, any form of movie/TV crossover would be a logistical nightmare, as bringing the likes of Matt Murdock et. al over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe would open up nine kinds of plot holes and continuity errors.
That same question was addressed once again during Collider’s special screening of Avengers: Infinity War, which involved an extensive Q&A session with the Russo Brothers (h/t /Film). Having been heavily involved with the MCU ever since The Winter Soldier, it’s fair to say that Marvel’s double act are well versed on Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Which is to say that we should trust their decision to omit the Netflix heroes from Infinity War.
Via Twiter:
They talked about involving the Netflix Marvel characters in Infinity War, but they say it was too complicated to correlate story between not only the other marvel films in production but also the tv productions. They decided the best way to tell the story was to keep it MCU.
— /Film (@slashfilm) November 29, 2018
Not that you can blame them, of course, as the plot of Avengers: Infinity War involved upwards of 26 costumed crusaders, so we can’t imagine the Russo Brothers would’ve found much wiggle room for The Defenders. Besides, Netflix data has confirmed that Daredevil and Co. aren’t as popular as they once were, which goes some way to explaining why Luke Cage and Iron Fist were scrapped after just two seasons.
The Man Without Fear managed to survive for a third season, with some viewers even petitioning Netflix for a fourth. And Jessica Jones? She’s currently preparing for own third season, though it’s unclear as yet when it’ll premiere.
Circling back to the MCU, though, and all eyes are currently locked on Avengers 4 in anticipation of this week’s trailer reveal – you know, providing Marvel Studios doesn’t hold fire until next week.