Is Sigourney Weaver's 'Defenders' Villain The Leader Of The Hand?

There are few details surrounding Sigourney Weaver's Big Bad in the upcoming Marvel/Netflix miniseries The Defenders, other than her name is Alexandra and she has a team of mean-looking thugs in suits at her disposal.

"The more connections you have, the easier it will be to break you," Alexandra menacingly says in The Defenders trailer, supposedly to the team of streetwise superheroes, Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand. But we may have confirmation of who she is and how she's connected to supervillain organization, The Hand.

Fan theories swirled around Weaver's mysterious villain who antagonizes the heroes from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, forcing them to unite in a war for the fate of New York. Was she the vessel for The Hand's demonic Beast, who is the force behind the evil ninja clan that will resurrect Elektra (Elodie Yung)? Or was she even connected to The Hand at all — perhaps she was behind IGH, the dubious corporation behind Jessica and Luke's powers?

It seems our theories have been answered, thanks to Defenders costume designer Stephanie Maslansky, who may have confirmed in an interview with International Business Times that Alexandra commands The Hand.

"I think that she's clearly a baddie, and she's the head of an ancient organization which is grounded in the comics. I hope that her wardrobe reflects that kind of ancientness. I hope I haven't said too much. I hope Marvel doesn't come after me."

The ancient organization she is likely talking about — and the only one to appear in the Marvel-Netflix series other than its less evil counterpoint, The Chaste — is The Hand. We first were introduced to The Hand in Daredevil, when Stick, Matt's old mentor and a leader of The Chaste, tries to recruit Matt to help him in the oncoming war against the clan of evil ninjas. The Hand plays an even larger role in the second season of Daredevil, in which it's revealed that Elektra was a weapon of The Hand that Stick tried to reform. But thanks to Matt, she has a crisis of conscience and sacrifices her life for him, only for her body to be stolen by The Hand and resurrected in Defenders.

The remarks about Weaver's "ancient" wardrobe may just act as a visual connection to The Hand, but it could also imply her own character's age — is she an immortal being as old as the organization she leads? That's something we can only guess at until The Defenders comes to Netflix in August.

All eight episodes of The Defenders premiere on Netflix on August 18, 2017.