The Defenders should have been the TV equivalent of The Avengers, with the original four Marvel/Netflix shows building up towards a miniseries in which they all team-up to save New York. First announced in 2014, fans raised their expectations to the limit but unfortunately, when the eight-episode first season finally arrived in 2017, it turned out to be pretty underwhelming, to say the least.
It’s not too surprising, then, that it seems that Marvel Television has decided to cut their losses and avoid planning a follow-up season of The Defenders. While taking part in a Reddit AMA, producer Jeph Loeb was asked about the possibility of a season 2. He didn’t rule out the idea, but did admit that it’s not something that’s actively in the works over at the studio at the moment. In other words, don’t hold your breath for it to happen.
The Defenders starred Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Mike Colter (Luke Cage) and Finn Jones (Iron Fist) and wrapped up the ongoing threat of the Hand, who’d been skulking around NYC since Daredevil season 1. Their leader was even played by Sigourney Weaver. What seemed exciting on paper, though, didn’t come across on screen and the show just didn’t have the punch of the best of the Marvel-Netflixverse – though it’s still better than Iron Fist.
Loeb’s comments shouldn’t be too shocking, then, especially because Ritter even hinted awhile back that Marvel had decided to ditch the idea of doing team-up miniseries and instead focus on upping the amount of standalone seasons they produce. If that’s the consequence of no more of The Defenders, then we’ll take it, though we’d definitely be open to more crossovers in the future.
Up next for Marvel’s small screen heroes is season 2 of Luke Cage, which will be with us on June 22nd.