Daredevil Will Assemble The Defenders Team, Charlie Cox Reveals

News that The Defenders will start filming at the end of 2016 came as a bit of a surprise seeing that Luke Cage has yet to be released, and casting for Iron Fist isn't even finished. This begs the question, will Daredevil Season 3 and Jessica Jones Season 2 come after The Defenders debut? If so, it hasn’t been made clear how The Defenders come together since none of them have actually met. Agent Coulson formed S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury assembled The Avengers,so who will lead The Defenders?

We were taken back when Charlie Cox said he “doesn't know” if there will be a Season 3 earlier this week, but now he’s spilled even more details that suggest The Defenders will actually premiere before a new season of Daredevil. That’s not all. SPOILER: Daredevil will be the one to assemble The Defenders team.

Empire caught up with Cox who explained how Daredevil Season 2 organically sets up for The Defenders.

“He can’t do this alone. He’s been so adamant about being a lone wolf, about doing it himself, so I think that in order for him to get to The Defenders we needed this second season. We needed to see him be broken individually so that he can - he’s willing to form a team,” Cox said.

Daredevil has been hesitant to trust anyone, let alone allow anyone to help him in his vigilante crusade. He was only willing to help Elektra because of their romantic history, and that partnership didn’t turn out so well. The Punisher and Daredevil were ‘frenemies’ all season long and deep down Daredevil liked having him as backup. It was relieving for him to know that somebody else cared about saving the city, even if he took more extreme methods to achieve the same goal. This is why Daredevil is now open to working as a team: he’s finally realized he can’t put Hell’s Kitchen’s burden only on himself, which is why he decided to tell Karen his true identity in the last moments of Season 2.

Who knows, we may get a taste of The Defenders’ team dynamic if Daredevil links up with Luke Cage or Iron Fist in the next year. Fans also predict Claire (aka The Night Nurse) and Jeri Hogarth will play a large role in merging the Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil storylines together.

Back in January, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said the schedule of “second and third seasons” depends on the production of The Defenders . At this stage, Jessica Jones and Daredevil are the only second and third seasons Sarandos could be speaking about.

Showrunner Marco Ramirez added fuel to the fire when he said he crafted Daredevil Season 2 with the goal of feeding into the larger Marvel TV Universe.

“They have such a specific plan of action for Marvel and Netflix. That was just our hope, to make sure that it worked as its own season of TV and also as fitting into the larger world of all the other shows,” Ramirez added.

Sounds like the timing for Daredevil Season 3 and Jessica Jones Season 2 is still up in the air. The next solo Jessica Jones and Daredevil seasons will be quite interesting if The Defenders premieres first.

The Defenders series is due sometime in 2017.