The reabsorption of Netflix’s short-lived set of Marvel TV shows into the larger body of Marvel on-screen canon has been a long and delicate process, beginning when the MCU movies and shows acknowledged that they probably weren’t going to find a better Matt Murdock or Wilson Fisk than Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, respectively, before growing out (after some expensive and radical reshoots) into the addition of most of the cast of Marvel‘s Daredevil to Disney+ revival show Daredevil: Born Again. Things took a turn toward the even-more-inclusive last year, when Krysten Ritter broke her two-year veil of secrecy and confirmed she’d be back for the show’s currently airing second season, reprising her role as hard-drinking superpowered P.I. Jessica Jones.
But whither the rest of the Defenders, that deliberately low-rent team of lightly-powered individuals keeping New York’s less flashy neighborhoods safe from their surprising surfeit of ornery ninjas? Well, we may now have our answer, as Variety reports that photographers caught Ritter on the set of the show’s currently shooting third season this week… with Mike Colter and Finn Jones in tow.
Given that this probably isn’t the Evil/Daredevil/Dickinson crossover we’ve been pitching in our fanfiction, the pictures certainly suggest that Luke Cage and Danny “Iron Fist” Rand may also soon be popping into the MCU for an appearance in Born Again. (Neither man has reprised these parts since the late 2010s: Jones last played Rand in the 2018 finale of the second season of Iron Fist, while Colter reappeared as Cage in the series finale of Jessica Jones, the final installment of the whole Netflix mini-universe.) Of course, Matt Murdock will have to get through season 2 of Born Again, which is set to run through May 5, if he wants to get to any further Defenders reunions; season 3 of the series is currently set for a March 2027 premiere.