The Defenders, Netflix’s very hotly anticipated Marvel superhero crossover series, will be released on 18 August, according to a 16-second teaser trailer in which all four central characters are shown together for the first time.
In faux-grainy black and white security cam footage we see the four heroes – Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist – huddling awkwardly until Jones, played by Krysten Ritter, turns and busts out the camera. The time stamp in the top right was the first clue for fans – the footage goes dark just as it hits 08:18:20:17, indicting the 18th day of the 8th month in 2017.
And for more eagle-eyed viewers, there is an IP address in the top left of the screen. Type http://23.253.120.81 into your browser (or click the link) and it takes you to a website for the New York Bulletin, the fake newspaper Netflix uses in its corner of the Marvel universe. There’s not much in the way of fresh information to be had there, but it’s neat enough.
We don’t know much about what The Defenders will be about, except that it’ll combine the main characters of the four Netflix Marvel shows across eight hour-long episodes, and that Sigourney Weaver is playing the big bad Alexandra.
Iron Fist, staring Finn Jones, was released to a mixed reception in March, while a third Marvel series is expected on Netflix at some point this year. Jon Bernthal, who won a lot of praise for playing The Punisher, an extreme anti-hero, in the second season of Daredevil, will star in a show of his own, but its release date is not yet known.
