Last year it was announced that Marvel was partnering up with the streaming service Netflix for four new drama series – Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist – building to an Avengers-style team-up miniseries, The Defenders. With production now underway on Daredevil, Empire Magazine caught up with Netflix’s CCO Ted Sarandos, who offered up some insight into the upcoming superhero shows…
“It was really based on the theatrical model of The Avengers. Could you take another group of characters, The Defenders, and go about it the same way? Normally they do the big movie and then eventually they get to the group origin story. Having 13 hours to tell each of these stories, you can go right to the origin story and the action at the same time. Right now, the writers’ rooms are open and they’re looking at casting Jessica. If you sense some hesitation in my voice, that’s classic Marvel fashion. They like to keep that veil of secrecy. But Daredevil is already shooting, since that’s out first. Eventually the series will run very close together. You can then have a separate season where the characters will cross over.”
Sarandos then went on to reveal that The Defenders making the jump to the movie universe “has definitely been talked about”, as well as touching upon the difference in tone between the Daredevil series and the 2003 Ben Affleck movie: “The series will not be afraid to go darker than the film did. What we love about this particular set of heroes is that they’re a little more down to Earth. Costume wise and also in that these are gritty crime stories, more in the streets than in the clouds.”
Source: CBM
Originally published August 25, 2014. Updated December 13, 2019.
