Marvel's The Defenders Just Showed off the Full First Episode

When Marvel's The Avengers assembled at San Diego Comic-Con's Hall H many years ago, it was arguably the seminal moment of Comic-Con. Bringing together disparate heroes for the first time, the superhero blockbuster brought the house down. Seven years later, Netflix's similar superhero mashup, Marvel's The Defenders, has come to Hall H to try and recreate that magic.

Where Avengers was "just" following up on five movies, its Cinematic Universe cousin Defenders picks up from four Netflix series, and stars their four leads: Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Daredevil/Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Danny Rand/Iron Fist (Finn Jones). That's about 65 hours of entertainment, all leading up to the eight-hour series -- and one that includes nearly every supporting character from each hero's respective show, as well.

Here's everything we learned from The Defenders Comic-Con panel:

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1. Surprise! It's The Punisher! Jon Bernthal, who plays The Punisher/Frank Castle showed up to premiere the first look at footage of the upcoming The Punisher. "Frank's very much in my heart," Bernthal said. "We're going to do our best to get it right, and I hope you guys dig it." You can check out our recap of the footage here!

2. Iron Fist Season 2 is coming. In addition to all the other series in development (Daredevil Season 3, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage Season 2), Iron Fist Season 2 is coming soon! Not only that, but Misty Knight (Simone Missick) will seemingly join the cast, leading to a team-up with Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) straight out of the comics -- where their team-up is called The Daughters of the Dragon.

3. Elektra is a (mostly) mindless assassin. Though Elodie Yung's Elektra "died" at the end of Daredevil, she'll be back to menace the heroes in The Defenders. Yung noted that she's not quite herself, mostly a mindless drone trying to kill the heroes. Whether she'll break out of that spell? We'll see, of course. But Sigourney Weaver, who plays the villain in the series, said her relationship with Yung was one of the most interesting on -- and off -- film she's ever had in the industry.

4. Jessica Jones makes fun of The Defenders.The hard-drinking loner Jessica Jones doesn't seem a natural fit for teamwork. But Ritter thinks in the series, it works. "She reluctantly goes on a journey with these guys," Ritter said. "But she takes every opportunity to make fun of everything they're doing." She also noted she definitely makes fun of Daredevil's costume.

5. There will be no Defenders Tower. Unlike the movie team, The Defenders will never have a headquarters, or matching t-shirts, or anything like that. Showrunner Marco Ramirez said that instead they'll be fighting in "really dirty bars."

6. They showed the full, first episode! We won't spoil it for you, but suffice to say that most of the pilot is taken up with catching up on strands from the four separate series -- even down to individual color schemes. And no, you don't find out which villain Sigourney Weaver is playing, but every scene she was in killed.

7. They showed a new trailer! The trailer showed more action, more humor, and multiple action scenes with the whole team together. Hey, even Iron Fist wasn't terrible in these (and occasionally he was kind of fun)!

Marvel's The Defenders premieres August 18th on Netflix.