Marvel's the Defenders is an American broadcast television miniseries created for Netflix by Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez. It is based on the Marvel Comics characters Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist who make up the superhero team of the same name. It takes place in the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU) and acknowledges the continuity of the franchise movies. The miniseries are a parade event for several connected series from Marvel and Netflix. ABC Studios, Nine and a Half Fingers, Inc. Produced by Marvel Television. and Goddard Tekstil serving as the Ramirez showrunner.
In the series, Charlie Cox reprises the roles of Matt Murdock / Daredevil, Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Mike Colter as Luke Cage, and Finn Jones as Danny Rand / Iron Fist from their individual series. It also returns from previous series by Sigourney Weaver, alongside Eka Darville, Elden Henson, Jessica Henwick, Simone Missick, Ramón Rodríguez, Rachael Taylor, Deborah Ann Woll, Élodie Yung, Rosario Dawson and Scott Glenn. The development started in late 2013 and Cox first acted in May 2014. Petrie and Ramirez joined as showrunners in April after doing this for daredevil's second season. Petrie left with the start of filming that took place in New York from October 2016 to March 2017. Cinematography and design work created different color palettes from the individual series of the characters and combined them as the team was formed.
The Defenders premiere took place in New York on July 31, 2017, and eight episodes aired on Netflix on August 18. Critics were mostly positive about the crossover highlighting the dynamics between the different Defenders as well as Weaver's performance, but they were often disappointed with the overall story, pacing, and use of the hand as villains. Third-party analysis showed that the miniseries were the least-viewed Marvel Netflix series, and despite being the third-most "binge-racing" series globally at release, according to Netflix, it had the biggest drop on weekdays.