Over the past year, Disney+ has made some substantial additions to its collection of Marvel projects, which go far past the MCU's new streaming shows and the X-Men movies formerly under 20th Century Fox. Even more recently, the service brought the six shows that make up the Defenders Saga, including plenty of promotional material to put that story into the spotlight.
Some of the Defenders Saga's biggest stars have been front and center for their series' inclusions on Disney+, even teaming up with actors from other shows like ABC's Agents of SHIELD. This also comes as the MCU brings characters that originated from those shows into the surefire canon MCU, such as Charlie Cox's Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin in Hawkeye.
Even with these shows getting so much love from an advertising perspective, fans still wonder whether they will be fully brought into the timeline with their MCU counterparts someday.
Well, a new ad from Disney+'s Instagram account may tease that crossovers of that level could be on the way sooner rather than later.
Disney+ Ad Promotes Defenders Crossover Opportunities
The Instagram account for Disney+ shared five new images highlighting key scenes and crossovers among the main characters of the Defenders Saga, which used to stream on Netflix. The post came with the following caption, teasing the idea of the shows and possibly the greater universe being "all connected:"
"When you realize it’s all ᴄᴏɴɴᴇᴄᴛᴇᴅ.
Marvel’s The Defenders, The Punisher, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist are streaming on Disney Plus."
Jon Bernthal's Punisher stands in his full costume with blood all over his face next to a label that reads "Frank Castle." The photo notes that he's a "force recon Marine," also pointing out Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page with her face circled next to the phrase "Nelson & Murdock office manager?"
Charlie Cox's Daredevil shines in multiple pictures while being described as "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen." Cox is seen in his Daredevil garb and as Matt Murdock, and there's also a picture of Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones circled at the bottom that says she's a "known accomplice."
Ritter shines on her own as the titular star of Jessica Jones as her image highlights her status as both a private detective and as a "former superhero." As it was with the first two heroes, Ritter's collage includes a picture with another hero circled in it - this one being Mike Colter's Luke Cage, who was first introduced in Jessica Jones Season 2.
Luke Cage shines in his own poster that highlights his "unbreakable skin" and "super strength" under a photo of him wearing his bullet-hole-filled hoodie. Next to him is a shot of Mahershala Ali as Cottonmouth before he plays the MCU's Blade, and Colter sits across from Finn Jones' Danny Rand in the bottom-right corner.
Finn Jones' Iron Fist powers up his mystical weapon in his page's biggest image, which pays tribute to his status as a martial arts expert. He's also seen sitting in a more subdued position in other images, and his green and yellow symbol is posted in between the pictures.
Here's a look at the full detective board view that connects all five titular Marvel characters:
Will Defenders Connect with Larger MCU?
One of the MCU's underlying themes over the past decade and change is everything being "all connected" as Marvel Studios built the biggest interconnected movie franchise in the game. This continues to be the case with everything coming in Phase 4 after the Infinity Saga, but the TV side of the equation has always been a little bit fuzzy with its ties to the greater MCU.
With this new post, however, could Disney+ be teasing something bigger on the way for the Netflix series?
These series inclusions in the MCU have already seen a little traction thanks to Matt Murdock appearing for a minute in the Spider-Man threequel and Kingpin being the big bad in Hawkeye. There are also other key rumors to keep track of over the next few years with projects still left to release.
Mike Colter and Krysten Ritter were seen together in recent weeks, leading to fans believing they'll reprise their roles together as Luke Cage and Jessica Jones - Ritter is even rumored to appear in August's She-Hulk. There are also reports noting that Cox and D'Onofrio are set to come back for a second round of MCU action in Alaqua Cox's Echo, which could give an opportunity to definitively confirm or deny Daredevil's canon status.
No matter how these rumors play out, this ad certainly puts that question into the forefront once again for fans.
All six shows from Netflix's Defenders Saga are now available to stream on Disney+.
