Arguably the biggest show to make a splash at San Diego Comic Con 2017 was “The Defenders,” the four show mega crossover event series from Netflix and Marvel. OMFGTV talked to select talent from the series to discuss what to expect from the show when it hits Netflix on August 18.
Deborah Ann Woll, who plays Karen Page on “Daredevil,” discussed her character’s new career as a journalist and how that will affect her going forward: “Karen’s a very smart person, a very curious person, she’s like a dog with a bone, she can’t let it go,” Woll said. “So she’s going to dig and dig and dig.”
Woll also previewed the aftermath of the “Daredevil” season 2 cliffhanger of Matt Murdock revealing to her his secret identity. “Obviously, he’s revealed to her his secret, she still has lots of secrets from him, so it’s stingy.”
Charlie Cox, who plays Murdock, described Matt’s struggle following the events of “Daredevil” “At the end of season 2, he kind of feels like he failed,” Cox said. “He has to reevaluate his position as someone who gives vigilante justice and is taking his fight to the court for now. And then the situation arises where he has to start thinking about revisiting his alter ego. And you’ll see someone who’s willing to work with others, and that’s something he’s been unwilling to do up to this point.”
Cox also discussed the hallways fight scenes in “Daredevil,” joking that, “it’s in my contract,” before discussing the hallway fight scene previewed in the trailer for “The Defenders” “It was a lot harder because there’s four of us,” Cox said. “The choreography of how they put four of us in a fight scene is really complicated. It was really fun but it took a lot longer.”
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Legendary actress Sigourney Weaver stopped by to discuss her villainous character Alexandra. “Sometimes when people try to create a formidable woman character, they start talking about ice queens and I really wasn’t interested in playing anyone who wasn’t someone I could believe. To me, she’s a very real person within this rather fantastic universe and I think that true of all the characters.”
Weaver also delved into Alexandra’s relationship with her adversaries, the Defenders themselves. “I think she appreciates who they are, she appreciates their passion. I think she would like to have them work for her, but they don’t share the same priorities.”
Head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb discussed the darkness of the Netflix shows in relation to the rest of the Marvel universe. “I don’t know that that was a choice at the end of the day. If you look at the source material and the characters that we chose, starting with Daredevil in particular once Frank Miller got his hands on the character and going through what Brian Michael Bendis did with Jessica, and Luke’s been told a variety of different ways and certainly things in the Immortal Iron Fist series. I don’t know if we refer to it as dark so much as real. What we’ve been trying to do with all the shows on Netflix is make sure these characters have a truth to them.”
Loeb also discussed the importance of being unpredictable in the Marvel world. “One of the things that’s exciting about the stories that we’re telling is that sometimes things don’t turn out the way that you expect. Which is why is was important and a huge choice for us- and spoiler alert if you don’t know this- it was a huge choice the choice to be made with Ben Urich in ‘Daredevil’ season 1. To suddenly say that this character who is so integral, not just to the ‘Daredevil’ universe, but to the Marvel universe in general, is going to have a tragic ending.”
“Part of that was so Karen Page could grow into something that she never had been before,” Loeb continued. “We didn’t want to tell a story where she was Matt Murdock’s girlfriend. It’s about how the characters evolve, it’s about how the writing evolves and it’s about the magic that happens with the particular actors.”
“The Defenders” premieres globally on Netflix August 18.
