Marvel and Netflix always planned the Daredevil series was going to be a hit, so much that they wanted three more shows based in this darker Marvel Cinematic Universe that still takes place within the continuity of the Avengers movies. The three other shows are Jessica Jones (which had a critically-acclaimed Season 1) as well as Luke Cage (coming September 30) and Iron Fist (unknown release date). The plans was for all four main characters to join up in Season 1 of a combination show known as The Defenders, but Season 2 revealed a popular character known as The Punisher. Now The Punisher is getting his own series, does this affect the plan for The Defenders?
CNET reported that Netflix has announced last Friday that an all-new The Punisher series is coming. It was confirmed with a simple Facebook message that read: "Target acquired. Marvel's The Punisher returns to Netflix".
Considering that The Punisher is a Marvel comic fan-favorite, it is not surprising that he will receive his own series. The character was more anti-hero, as his method of fighting crime involves killing criminals, often shooting henchmen on sight. His introduction on Daredevil Season 2 created a lot of sympathy for this character with Jon Bernthal's tragic hero performance, not to mention clashing with Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox) over their methods of crime-fighting.
So far, the connection between the shows of Daredevil and Jessica Jones are very faint. The two main characters differ in many ways, but Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) would be a bit more tolerant of The Punisher's methods as she has killed Kilgrave (David Tennant) at the end of her Season 1.
At least Jessica Jones gave Luke Cage (Mike Colter) a formal introduction, and his own Luke Cage show will be based in Harlem with his own enemies to deal with. It is possible that Iron Fist could be introduced in some way on Luke Cage, but Finn Jones (the actor playing Danny Rand aka Iron Fist) does not have Luke Cage on his imdb page.
This doesn't seem right, as Luke Cage and Danny Rand had their own comic book in the seventies and eighties known as Power Man and Iron Fist. It really just makes sense to pair them off, so perhaps viewers will have to wait until The Defenders before a team-up is seen on screen. Maybe Finn Jones will have a surprise appearance on Luke Cage, like Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) suddenly appeared in Daredevil Season 2.
We have reported that The Defenders began filming already, which means that all four characters could be sharing the screen even now. The big question mark is what event in this darker Marvel universe brings them together, and how it could be something that would involve The Punisher? Yes, this is implying that The Punisher will appear on The Defenders, but wouldn't it be something if he was the enemy that brings the heroes together? It is something to consider, and one can't help but wonder if this is part of the long-range plan.
