The Defenders

While The Defenders is designed as a crossover event following Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, you can follow the main story without watching all four. However, watching at least Daredevil Season 2 and Iron Fist Season 1 will help you understand key character dynamics and the Hand storyline that serves as the central plot.

The primary antagonist in The Defenders is Alexandra, played by Sigourney Weaver, who is revealed to be a leader of the Hand, the ancient ninja organization. The Hand's plan to destroy New York City brings the four heroes together for the first time.

The Defenders exists within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and references events like the Battle of New York from The Avengers, but the Netflix shows operated largely separately from the films. Characters and storylines rarely crossed over directly with the MCU movies during the Netflix era, and the relationship between the shows and the films became even more ambiguous after the Netflix Marvel series were cancelled.

The Defenders is a miniseries consisting of eight episodes, all released on Netflix in 2017. It is significantly shorter than the individual character series, which each ran 13 episodes per season.