Marvel’s ‘The Defenders’ is teased for an August release on Netflix

The Verge informs us that a new teaser trailer for the upcoming Marvel Comics series called “The Defenders” has shown up. The series, which combines several characters with their own shows on Netflix, is due to drop on the live-streaming service August 18, 2017.

The trailer lasts 16 seconds and depicts our heroes, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, the Daredevil, and Danny Rand, aka Iron Fist, alone in an elevator. Toward the end of the clip, Jones notices the camera, leaps up, and punches it out. Thus the trailer is pretty thin aside from showing The Defenders together in a single scene.

The premise of the series is that a villain, played by Sigourney Weaver, has arisen to threaten New York City. Weaver’s character is involved in an evil organization called The Hand.

Our four heroes, who tend to do battle against more mundane villains in their own shows, realize that they have to combine forces to put a stop to the Hand’s evil plan. The series will consist of eight episodes and will tie into the larger Marvel Comics universe that has been developed in numerous movies and TV shows.

The members of The Defenders are a motley crew.

• Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock, is a blind lawyer who has developed his other senses to a superhuman degree to fight crime.
• Jessica Jones is a semi-retired superhero who suffers from PTSD and has opened a detective agency where she uses her powers to help clients.
• Luke Cage is an ex-convict who has super strength and unbreakable skin.
• Danny Rand is a billionaire Buddhist monk who has developed a mystical power called “the Iron Fist.”

Also showing up for the miniseries is Elektra, an assassin from Murdock’s past presumed to have died toward the end of the second season of “Daredevil.” The death is weighing on the superhero’s mind at the beginning of “The Defenders.” Elektra is a weapon working for the Hand.

Carrie-Anne Moss, best known for her role in “The Matrix” films, will appear as Jeri Hogarth, a lawyer friend of Jones and Rand, who has been in some of Netflix’s other Marvel series. Scott Glenn shows up as Stick, a mentor to Murdock who is a member of the Chaste, a good organization doing battle against the Hand. The character has previously appeared in “Daredevil.”

As is common in every other Marvel production, Stan Lee will make a cameo appearance.