First teaser and date announcement for Marvel’s The Defenders

IT’S the first time all four Defenders have appeared in the same frame. And even better, we finally have a date.

Four months and 13 days to go.

AFTER three and a half years since it was first announced, we finally have a date for the Netflix Marvel hero team-up The Defenders.

Marvel’s street-level heroes Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones) will together kick and punch their way onto screens on August 18.

Marvel dropped a first-look 15-second teaser this morning. The video is shot like CCTV footage from inside a lift in the “Midland Circle” building, which was still under construction in Daredevil season two.

The only sound you hear is muzac and the sound of Iron Fist catching his breath (perhaps they were all just engaged in fisticuffs on the 45th floor? Jessica sees a security camera in the corner and pulls it offline with the time ticker in the top corner stopping on “08:18:20:17”. Get it?

An earlier teaser for The Defenders was released last year but it only featured animated graphics, no footage of the actual characters.

The widely anticipated eight-episode miniseries has been in the works for years and comes after five seasons (including two for Daredevil) of Defenders heroes’ individual shows.

With the exception of the problematic, just-released Iron Fist, the shows have been fan and critic favourites, often praised for its dark and grounded treatment of comic book heroes.

There has been little crossover between the main characters, except for Luke Cage who was introduced on Jessica Jones, so seeing the four together in the same frame is quite the treat. Some supporting characters have popped into the others’ series, including Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple who has featured in all four shows.

The Defenders will see the four thrown together to fight off The Hand, a group of mystical ninja bad guys first introduced in Daredevil. Last year at New York Comic Con, Marvel Studios TV boss Jeph Loeb announced Sigourney Weaver as the main villain of the miniseries though it’s unclear how she will be connected to The Hand.

It would take four superheroes to take down Sigourney Weaver.

Supporting characters from all four series is expected to pop up throughout the eight episodes. These include Claire Temple, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), Elektra (Elodie Yung), Stick (Scott Glenn), Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor), Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss), Malcolm (Eka Darville), Misty Knight (Simone Missick) and Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick).

The Defenders was first announced in November 2013. We’ve already waited three years and five months, so what’s another four more months? The count is on.

The Defenders will be available to stream on Netflix on August 18 at 5pm AEST.

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