It Will Be Some Time Before The Defenders Make Their Way Into The MCU, Says Kevin Feige

The wave of cancellations of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke CageIron Fist, and The Punisher effectively ended fans' dreams of a Defenders-Avengers crossover (they all live in New York, after all!) but even as the superheroes end their reigns on Netflix, the question remains: Could they still be introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Maybe, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige has recently hinted. But it will be a long time before we see the Defenders in MCU.

The future of the Defenders are up in the air as the characters played by Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Coulter, and Finn Jones, as well as Jon Bernthal's Punisher remain in limbo following Netflix's cancellations of their respective series. But could these actors return as their streetsmart New York superheroes in the MCU? "I don't know," Feige told BET in a recent interview ahead of the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home. But the Marvel Studios president seemed open to considering their MCU debuts somewhere along the line:

"There were a lot of great characters that were on those Netflix series, and I think there is a period of time...it'll be a while before we could use any of them based on what the contracts were, so I'm not sure. And also, even answering that question is a spoiler. But there are some great Marvel characters there."

It's a typically cryptic Feige response that essentially boils down to "If you want to think so, maybe!" But it would be a shame to leave great characters like Daredevil, a longtime Marvel Comics staple and one of the company's most popular heroes, or Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, who have seen a surge in popularity and relevance thanks to their acclaimed Netflix series. Iron Fist has a cool glowing fist, too.

The Punisher has seen his fair share of movie adaptations, and seems the most likely to get another reboot in a hyperviolent solo film, though it would be a shame to lose the dynamo performance by Bernthal. Cox is also a perfectly cast Daredevil who has carried the Marvel-Netflix flag for years, kicking off the shows with a highly popular and acclaimed first season and providing the central thread for the Defenders miniseries. But I get the feeling that if these characters were to make their MCU debut, it wouldn't be with Cox, Ritter, Coulter, Jones, and Bernthal behind the masks. With Disney+ not making a move to pick up the shows from Netflix, and Marvel getting to play with the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters for the first time in decades, we won't likely see these scrappy street-level superheroes for a while.