A blind man who has no fear, a bulletproof man, a woman who’d rather not be a hero and a rich guy with a glowing fist.

The Avengers, they’re not. They don’t even want to be a team. However, if they want to keep The Hand and a powerful woman from reducing New York to rubble, they better try.

Fans at Comic-Con packed Hall H Friday to get a preview of The Defenders, starting August 18th. The cast was there, along with Head of Marvel TV Jeph Loeb.

Before that, Jon Bernthal, who played the Punisher in season two of Daredevil appeared to talk about his upcoming series. “Frank (Castle)’s very much in my heart, and I’m eternally grateful to get another crack at him,” he says. “I just want to say to members of the law enforcement community, ladies, men who served served this country in the military and comic book fans that Frank belongs to, we’re going to do our best to get it right, and I hope you guys dig it.”

That was followed by a three minute trailer that shows Frank at work in three different areas, including the iconic shirt. It’s expected to be released soon.

Afterwards, Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Mike Colter (Luke Cage) and Finn Jones (Iron Fist) took the stage along with Sigourney Weaver, who’ll play a powerful socialite named Alexandra, Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Elodie Yung (Elektra) and Jessica Hardwick (Colleen Wing). They gave their impressions about the show, which will literally merge the worlds of four super-heroes into an eight-part series.

First, Hardwick says that Colleen is in a different place with Danny Rand, literally. “She really hasn’t come to terms with what’s happened”, she says, but she promises she’ll be the warrior she had been.

As for Woll, she says it’s been tough working on more than one show, but she is pleased with the writers adding more layers to Karen Page.

Yung’s character, Elektra, was last seen in a grave, but now she’s been turned into a weapon. “I guess the question for my character is how much of Elektra that we know remains,” she says. Supposedly she doesn’t remember her past life, especially Daredevil.

Weaver says she’s been a fan of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. She describes Alexandra as an interesting woman who has a relationship with someone which she described as “one of the most unusual and interesting relationships I’ve ever had, on screen or off.”

By the way, when Weaver talked to reporters a few hours earlier, she described Alexandra as someone who loves New York and the arts. “It’s unfortunate that these four very talented young people seem to be have different priorities than she does,” she explained (hiding her character’s real motives). Seriously, though, she explained she liked the Marvel shows because “they’re real people with certain gifts, but also a lot of flaws. The situations, to me, are very interesting, and I think the show’s really well written and beautifully acted.”

As for Jones, he says it’ll be interesting what Danny Rand will do as the Iron Fist now that K’un-Lun has been destroyed. “It was really nice to kind of take Danny from the beginning of Iron Fist and seeing him right through into Defenders and see how much the character changes along the way, and really grows into himself” he says.  “He’s definitely inspired when he meets these other three people with abilities to take his responsibilities with more purpose and drive.”

Colter says Luke will be dealing with leaving prison and helping people in Harlem. He might even be friends with Iron Fist, although not right away. “I think the most interesting part of the Defenders is the relationship between the people,” he says. “The fight scenes are cool and everything but because we have such clear points of view, I think we get together on screen, and we start to bounce ideas off one another and just have what we have off camera. It’s great.”

 

 

Ritter, meanwhile, says her character is very reluctant to help anyone, even if it means taking cases to pay her bills. Working with someone like Daredevil is also unlikely, but she tries. “Jessica really doesn’t want to play with others. She doesn’t ask or want to help,” she says. “At the end of the day, I think what we love about Jessica is that underneath it all she does have a gooey inside, and she will rise to the occasion and help the little guy.” So, she’ll join the team and be as snarky as possible, especially now that she’s free of Kilgrave.

Then, Cox was asked about how he had to be the first one to make Marvel successful on Netflix. He says he does remember signing up for all this, and he’s glad it’s worked out.

Then he suggested that the fans see some clips of the new show.

Loeb did them one better…he showed the first episode, which featured the heroes trying to move on. It ended with something that usually doesn’t happen in New York, but it gets the attention of the Defenders.

Then came a new trailer…

https://youtu.be/D_6J9BqgonU

By the way, the trailer does reveal that person that Alexandra has a relationship with. This will be tough on Daredevil.

It also shows the return of Stick (Scott Glenn), doing his Nick Fury impression.

From the response of the fans, Defenders will be a great finish to Phase One of the Marvel Netflix-verse. Phase two will feature all four heroes with new episodes next year, along with the Punisher.

The eight-part Defenders series starts August 18th on Netflix.