Not content with dominating the silver screen Marvel have super villain-style plans to take over the world of TV.
Back in 2013 the studio teamed up with Netflix to make four original series, featuring some of the comic giant’s lesser known characters.
That led to two absolutely fantastic series of Daredevil, the man without fear, and then the studio took a risk on the relatively obscure Jessica Jones which was another stunning success.
We knew that the next two shows would be Luke Cage and Iron Fist but details have been relatively thin on the ground, unitl now.
Last night Marvel dropped not one, no two, but three new teasers for upcoming Marvel series from Netflix at San Diego Comicon.
Luke Cage
First introduced in Jessica Jones, Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is an indestructible super-strong ‘hero for hire’ and his solo series promises to be a strange blend of gritty Wire-style drama and the bombast of superheroes.
It’s a formula that’s proven a winning combination before, as both Daredevil and Jessica Jones have been praised for their mature tone and dark themes.
The new Cage teaser demonstrates just what an unbreakable bad-ass Luke really is, bulldozing through Harlem thugs like a one man armyon the suggestion of an elderly man who says he should be, ‘down there like everybody else helping people’.
When one of the unlucky criminals asks Cage is he ‘Harlem’s hero now?’ Luke can only smirk and warn, ‘I’m only just getting started’.
Showrunner, Cheo Hodari Coker, has described the show as ‘a powerful fusion of dark drama, hip-hop, and classic superhero action’ and you can watch Luke Cage season on Netflix from September 30th, 2016.
Iron Fist
The last of the original solo series Iron Fist tells the story of Danny Rand, a master of mystical martial arts and user of ‘the iron fist’ which makes him a super strong butt-kicking machine.
Easily one of Marvel’s riskier choices for a TV series Iron Fist, along with the upcoming Doctor Strange, will bring the world of magic into the MCU and potentially open up new avenues for future shows and movies down the road.
The brief teaser hints at a tragic origin for Danny’s powers, suggesting that he discovers the mystical city of K’un-L’un when his plane crashes in the mountains surrounding the city.
Not a clue how he ends up in the middle of New York bearded and barefooted but at least he’ll fit in with the hipsters in Greenwich Village.
Iron Fist will be smashing his way onto Netflix in 2017.
The Defenders
The final of the newest teasers and the TV equivalent of The Avengers. The Defenders is easily the most mysterious of Netflix’s current TV projects.
Filming’s set to begin at the end of the year on the mini-series which will see Dardevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and Danny Rand coming together for a street level event that only they can handle.
The brief teaser doesn’t really reveal anything aside from the voice of Scott Glenn as Daredevil’s frenemy/mentor Stick, who says: “You think the four of you can save New York? You can’t even save yourselves.”
Only time will tell what that cryptic line means but we’ll have to wait until 2017 to find out when the series finally gets released.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.