Moviefone Editorial

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  • ‘The Defenders’ Star Mike Colter on Luke Cage’s Exes, Cast Chemistry

    'Marvel's The Defenders' New York PremiereNow that Luke Cage is out of prison, he’s proving he can work and play well with others — namely, the other four superheroic leads of the Netflix-Marvel series now united in “Marvel’s The Defenders.” And actor Mike Colter’s happy to be a team player, too: after a years-long build-up, he’s taking his place in the ensemble and adding Cage’s bulletproof muscle to the group.

    While Cage initially has no direct connection to the villainous ninja death cult The Hand which the heroes band together from their various New York City boroughs to battle, the backdrop is still particularly provocative for him: Luke suddenly finds his past and current paramours — Jessica Jones, Misty Knight, and Claire Temple, respectively — regularly crossing paths. And, as Colter tells Moviefone, while those awkward ex encounters may not be as violent as the ninja battles, they still leave a mark.

    Moviefone: With all the build up to “The Defenders” and all the anticipation, what was it like when you finally got in the room with everybody to shoot some scenes, and what were the surprises that you didn’t anticipate about the whole thing?

    Mike Colter: From the outside, it always seems like actors, when they’re on a screen together, aren’t familiar with one another. So it’s like a weird thing: for everybody else, it seems like it’s brand new, but for us, we palled around because we’ve seen each other at junkets, we’ve seen each other at press, we’ve done press together.

    Finn [Jones] I’d met a few times, but briefly because he’s coming from the UK, or he was actually not around. I’ve known Krysten [Ritter] for a while now. I’ve come into contact with Charlie [Cox]. We’ve crossed paths quite a few times. It wasn’t as if we were completely unfamiliar with each other, and I think it just felt normal. It didn’t feel like it was unusual in the least, really. But we are characters so I think on screen, it felt like it was for the first time.

    What did you enjoy about the way the characters’ dynamics played out once they started butting up against each other? Was there some fun friction and chemistry that you saw in the new guys you were playing with, like Finn and Charlie?

    I think the best part about it is that we basically have, whether we want to admit it or not, there are four alphas — I wouldn’t say alpha male, but alpha personalities. Even Krysten’s character, everybody has their own thing. Nobody’s eager to be friends. So it’s not an alpha male thing, but it is an alpha ego thing, and I think everybody has their own agenda, and no one’s eager to be friends.

    No one’s looking for a team up. No one’s looking for a buddy or a sidekick. So they’re kind of reluctant to do their thing, but I think that’s the best part about it, trying to ease into the situation where we’re going to fight together one way or the other, and trying to see how that’s going to play itself out.

    In terms of revisiting Luke, what were the fun new sides of him that you were able to explore? What was a new challenge that they threw at you?

    I think Luke is now at a stage where he’s not running from the law anymore. He’s aware that there are things out there that he can’t do as a “man of the people,” as the hero of Harlem, or whatever he wants to kind of call himself. But ultimately, he sort of has freedom now to explore.

    It changes his personality, I think. He’s more open. He’s more jovial. He’s more relaxed. He doesn’t feel like he has to hide things. He’s not an open book, but he does have a lot less to hide now. Everyone knows his power. Everyone knows what his real name is. Probably everybody knows what his old name was. They know that he was in prison. They know that he had a wife. There’s really not that many secrets now.

    So now he’s just enjoying himself and trying to figure out how to function in this world openly as a hero that people are aware of. It’s just a different kind of thing. It’s fun because now you get to see Luke function with a more human side. Him dealing with his own powers out in the public and openly.

    Luke has a colorful romantic history, and some of these women are in the same room together with him here. That must have been fun to figure out how to play the sort of romantic tensions that are in his life right now.

    Yeah, I think for most of the audience, I think people are always eager to see how this is going to play out. But I’ll give Marvel and the writers and Netflix and everybody all credit: I’d say maybe 20 years ago if we were doing this, there would be scenes where girls are dressed a little skimpy, and it’d be a little weird. I think they’re pulling back on this whole thing of, well, he slept with multiple girls, and now these girls are going to have a little catfight over him. It’s not that. They’re all adults here. Things happen.

    Needless to say, the history is there, but I think for the audience, it adds a different color to it, adds a level to the interaction between everyone. Every time they see Misty talking to Claire, they’re thinking about that. There’s that added thing. Every time they see Misty come into contact with Jessica Jones for the first time, it’s like, “Oh, what’s going to happen here?” Or Jessica coming into contact with Claire.

    All this underneath it all, the audience is sort of intrigued to see and to wonder, “Is there something there? Is there something that’s going to come up?” Just makes it more interesting. But I don’t think we’re going to stoop to like, girls have to fight about Luke openly, because ultimately, they’re all adults. They make decisions and things happen. That’s just kind of how it is.

    As good as the writers, directors and producers are, and as deeply they do know all these characters, did you feel a little bit like you were Luke’s custodian, in making sure that he always came off the way that you and Cheo [Hodari Coker] have envisioned him?

    Yeah, that, too, but also this being another direction: when he gets out of prison, he does change his path a bit. It’s a new chapter in his life. So this is something that [showrunner] Marco [Ramirez] was going to be a steward in writing and starting to get him on his journey in that direction. Cheo was involved, I think, Melissa [Rosenberg] — all the writers sort of chimed in, I think, to give their opinions about drafts to make sure that it felt right.

    And yes, for sure, I definitely played the custodian of Luke because I wanted to make sure that if something didn’t feel right or if something didn’t make sense, we didn’t spin him in the wrong way. Dialogue, any little thing that sort of didn’t rub right, I felt like I could come to Marco and he would be open to suggestion.

    I think that they things we didn’t want to touch on now and be left to our own show, they left those things alone. There was this thing about making sure every character, made sure everybody knew what they were doing, and if it didn’t feel right, we could talk to Marco, and he was pretty open about helping us.

    Did you and Finn spend a little extra time making sure that the heroes for hire had a dynamic that a lot of fans familiar with the long “Power Man & Iron Fist” partnership are looking forward to seeing, so that it would play just the right way? Did you give a little extra time to the Luke and Danny relationship?

    I don’t think we had to. I think either you have this ability or you don’t. I think as far as working in this business, you have a chemistry that you have in life. Sometimes those things don’t actually line up. You can be with someone you can’t stand, honestly, and that doesn’t mean that it won’t come off on screen well.

    There are so many ways to look at it, even when you have a love affair on screen, you have a romantic relationship on screen, you have a friendship, and it doesn’t mean you actually have it in life. It’s just sometimes things work in a weird way. I think for us, we banter a bit. We have a great rapport. We sort of are alike, but very different, and I think that’s from visualization. We’re very different, same way Jessica and I are different. So our personalities aren’t that far apart, but there’s a lot of things we have in common, and a lot of things that we’re completely off on.

    But we embrace those. The differences sort of make it humorous sometimes. The differences between our characters and between us as people sort of helps to play out this relationship, and we embrace that, because that’s the humor of sort of opposites trying to fit together, trying to work together, and trying to become a “dynamic duo” of sorts. We’re not alike, but that’s part of what makes it work.

    Now that you’ve had this swing again at Luke, and you’ll going to carry what happened to him in “Defenders” over to another season of “Luke Cage,” what’s got you excited about perpetuating the character, staying in him and moving him forward from here?

    The most exciting part about moving him forward from here is trying to figure out really how to actually live a life now. He’s lived a life in secrecy, on the run. Now it’s about living a life with this “impediment.” Because being a superhero as they say, being a person with abilities, it’s not necessarily a good thing. It is an impediment. It does sort of keep you from doing things the way you would like to do them, and there’s a lot of expectation, a lot of responsibility. You have to figure out what you’re going to do for a living — there’s a lot of pressure to figure out what’s the next move for him.

    So what I want to explore, and what’s going to be really interesting for the second season, is seeing how he handles these newfound freedoms. What does it open up for him? How does his life change from now on moving forward? And what is it like to sort of be a person that when you walk down the street, everybody knows who he is?

    It’s a different level. We started to touch on it maybe halfway through the season, of last first season, but there was a lot of other things going on. We’re going to see some other exploration for the character. It’s really great what we’re doing so far, and I’m really happy about the writing. I can’t wait to continue to shoot some more and see where we are by the end of the season, but I’m really happy about the direction so far.

  • Charlie Cox Loves the Easter Eggs in ‘Marvel’s The Defenders’

    'Marvel's The Defenders' New York PremiereYou don’t need Daredevil’s radar senses to pick up on the excitement building around the long-anticipated arrival of “Marvel’s Defenders,” and now that the street-level super-team is about to make its debut, Charlie Cox says that, at least for him, the wait was worth it.

    In the new series, which, like its big-screen counterpart “Luke Cage (Jessica Jones (Iron Fist (Finn Jones) to save New York from the mystical ninja death cult The Hand, led by the enigmatic Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) and her newly resurrected assassin, Murdock’s deadly paramour Elektra (Elodie Yung).

    With two seasons of stories already under Daredevil’s belt, the Man Without Fear has a crucial part to play in the team-up, and as Cox reveals to Moviefone, the actor was more than a little invested in making sure the series lived up to the hype.

    Moviefone: The anticipation has been building among the fans as each new show rolled out, but how about for you? Were you feeling an extra little jolt when you started work on this, finally getting the chance to work with the three other leads of the Netflix-Marvel shows?

    Charlie Cox: Yeah. It’s a funny thing, really, because I knew that this was coming when I signed the contract. In 2014, when I was signed on to do “Daredevil,” I knew that they were planning on making the show, so it’s been in the back of my mind for quite a while now — me more than any of the others, I think, because I was cast first.

    So it’s been really exciting, and as the other shows have been made, and I’ve enjoyed watching them all so much, and getting to know the other guys — but really just from passing them in corridors, in the studio and stuff like that, and never really actually spending any real time together — and then all being thrown together to this show, it was just lovely, and such a fun bunch of people.

    Even the ones of us who didn’t grow up on comic books, we’ve kind of become fans now, because we’re so invested in these characters. And so, in a way, “Defenders” was particularly enjoyable, because we got to enjoy all the real geeky fan moments and the Easter eggs.

    When it came to sharing scenes with Mike and Finn and Krysten, tell me about the kinds of chemistry you found you had with each of those actors in your characters. And what was the fun of that bumping against each other?

    I mean, a lot of the relationships were kind of decided for us by the writers, you know what I mean? So it was clear early on that Danny and Matt would have a kind of [sibling relationship]. Matt’s kind of an older brother to Danny, and kind of takes him under his wing a little bit, and tries to mentor him. Not that he needs it per se, but maybe he’s a little more hot-headed, and can be a little more irrational than Matt.

    Jessica’s kind of like everyone’s older sister, and Matt and Jessica have a lot of really fun scenes together. That dynamic is interesting, because they don’t initially like each other very much, and I think they actually learned to kind of respect and admire one another, even against their will, kind of thing. And then Luke’s simple, because he’s just cool, you know no one messes with him. No one’s going to mess with him, so he just kind of sits back, and just is cool.

    “The Defenders” really does advance the Daredevil/Matt Murdock story in particular, more than the other leads, as far as what we’ve been following on the “Daredevil” series. What did it mean to you to kind of know that this story, even though it was an ensemble piece, was going to affect Daredevil’s storyline and his life in such a significant way?

    You know, I don’t think that was intentional. I actually just think that the reason for that is twofold: one, Matt’s already had two seasons of his character’s show, so there’s already been another 13 hours of investment into his character, so we know more about him. We’ve learned more. We’ve seen him in more kind of situations. I think that does mean that when you watch “The Defenders,” you bring more baggage to it than maybe other characters would.

    But also, because of the way the stories came together, this story is personal for Matt. Initially, it’s not personal for Jessica and Luke. They don’t know who The Hand is. They’ve never come across an organization like that. And so Matt and Danny have to kind of explain that to them and bring them in and help them kind of get their heads around what we’re dealing with. But for Matt and Danny, the story’s personal, so from a character point of view, I think that that can be sometimes a little bit more engaging.

    And audiences have been waiting to see what the next chapter in Matt’s relationship with Elektra was going to turn out to be, based on what they know from the classic comic book story arc. Tell me about finding such a clever way to integrate that classic storyline into this “Defenders” run.

    Yeah, that’s an interesting one. I don’t really know — I think it divides people a little bit. I think there’s some people who really enjoy what they’ve seen, and there are others who feel like the elements of Elektra that we love the most aren’t as apparent — at least initially aren’t as apparent — in the series.

    What I liked about it from a character point of view is that Matt is usually relatively sensible and to some degree able to not let his emotions get so hold of him that he makes bad decisions, but in this case, because of everything that happened with Elektra, because of the feelings that he has towards her, because of the guilt that he feels based on what happened to her, he allows himself to believe that she might really be back from the dead, as it were. And that false belief sends him down a path that almost endangers himself and the others.

    We get to explore that relationship a little bit more, but it’s slightly different now, because the boundaries have changed drastically, what with her being undead.

    Daredevil has historically been one of the most conflicted superheroes, and we still see that that conflict is playing out in this series. For you, what’s interesting and challenging about bringing that aspect of Matt and Daredevil to life?

    Look, I think I got so lucky with Matt Murdoch, especially if you’re going to play a character on TV rather than a film, where you’ve got a couple of hours to play a character. On a TV show, you arguably will go on for season after season. I’ve already done thirtysomething hours of this guy. So you really need something, you need some interesting dynamics within the character in order to keep making him compelling, and of course, with Matt, there’s so many.

    Just the obvious ones being that he’s religious. He believes in God. He’s a Catholic, but at the same time, he plays God to some extent. And so I think he believes in the laws of the universe and God’s law, and yet he’ll go out at night and beat the sh*t out of people, because he deems their actions to be sinful. Similarly, he’s a lawyer, and that is also in conflict with his nighttime activities as a masked vigilante. He believes in the law. He believes in order. He believes in the justice system, and yet he takes the law into his own hands.

    And so, what these shows do pretty well, I think, is that we get to see that in action. We get to see Matt go out and be a vigilante. We get to see him be a lawyer. We get to see him in church with the priest, but then we also get to see him at home alone, and sitting with those feelings, and feeling the loneliness and the shame of that inner conflict, and that for me is what makes him a compelling character.

    All of the Marvel-Netflix shows have fun playing with the superhero costume elements — how deeply you want to lean in to that, how soon you’re going to lean in to that — and you get to have some more fun in “Defenders” by playing a Daredevil without some of the traditional suit stuff that we’ve now come to see. Is that more fun for you than playing it in the suit, or do you sometimes want the suit to make you feel like Daredevil?

    That’s a really good question — I don’t know! I really love how the suit came about in the “Daredevil” seasons. The storyline that led towards the suit, for me, justified it, and I need that. If I engage in a superhero TV show or film or whatever, that’s the one hurdle that I need to get over in order to really love it. I don’t like it when the character puts on a suit just because they want to feel cool or something like that.

    It needs to make logical sense to me, and I thought they did it really well in Season 1, whereby it happened after 12 hours of footage, and it came about for two reasons. One, because protection was needed. He needed a material that was going to protect his body better, because he was being so beat up.

    But also because his friend, the priest, had mentioned this alter ego being something like a symbol, something that was consistent and something that wasn’t trying to hide in the shadows, but was actually very visible — and therefore, would help hopefully kind of encourage petty criminals to beware of their behavior kind of thing.

    Going into “Defenders,” I don’t think you can have Matt just show up in a Daredevil suit straight away. There’s almost too many jokes to be made — I think you’d have to do an entire episode where Jessica Jones and Luke Cage make funny jokes about it, you know? So they had to find a way of tying it in so that it emerged organically, with a few jokes, obviously, but it has to come at a time where it makes sense. And I feel they handled that really well, yeah.

    This show was modeled in the vein of the way that the Marvel movies led to “The Avengers,” but that was always a step-by-step process, whereas you guys knew straightaway this was going to happen. Tell me about the feeling now that you accomplished that big goal. What kind of satisfaction have you walked away knowing that you got there and were all able to, all four of you, get together and pull this off?

    I mean, we’ll see when it comes out! We’ll see what the fan reaction is, but it feels like a cool accomplishment to have done these four shows, and made this kind of team-up version of it. It feels like it’s a nice cherry on top. Kind of a full circle situation.

    I get nervous, because I really hope the fans appreciate it. I hope they like it. I know how important these characters are to people, and so it’s tremendous fun that we have making the show, but it’s also really important that the fans feel like we did the characters justice.

    I feel like we did a great job. We did our best. We tried to make a really fun, interesting, different show that was different from the individual shows, so now we just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

  • Official Trailer for ‘Marvel’s The Defenders’ Is a Massive Hit

    Guys, the war for New York is here. So get your sh*t together. Netflix just dropped a seriously badass official trailer for “Marvel’s The Defenders,” bringing together Marvel/Netflix heroes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. This is the epic teamwork the franchise has been building toward, after releasing individual series for each character.

    The trailer does not disappoint — from Nirvana’s “Come As You Are,” to the solid one-liners, to this amazing hallway fight:

    They even have their own amusing dinner scene toward the end. (If only it were shawarma in honor of “The Avengers.”)

    Check it out:So far, fans seem to approve, with #TheDefenders trending on Twitter, and the reactions looking … almost completely positive? Is that even possible? Did we just jinx it?

    Here’s the synopsis:

    “Marvel’s The Defenders follows Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist (Finn Jones). A quartet of singular heroes with one common goal – to save New York City. This is the story of four solitary figures, burdened with their own personal challenges, who realize they just might be stronger when teamed together.”

    This Netflix original series will stream globally on August 18.

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  • New ‘Defenders’ Teaser Hints at Elektra’s Resurrection

    Some people just don’t stay dead in this city.

    Netflix released a new teaser video for “Marvel’s The Defenders” which points to the return of Elodie Young’s Elektra, who died in the Season 2 finale of “Daredevil.” The video shows the massive stone urn her body was placed into by the Hand and someone pouring blood into — and the urn opening!

    It seems very likely the Hand means to resurrect her just as they did Nobu. But will Elektra be herself when she’s revived — or will she turn into the Black Sky as prophesied?

    Elektra was always mercurial in her principles, anyway, and the video’s sarcastic caption (“Oh great”) and follow-up answers on Twitter indicate that she will be more foe than friend to the Defenders — Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron First, and Jessica Jones — when she returns.

    “The Defenders” begins streaming August 18 on Netflix.

  • Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple Won’t Be in Netflix’s ‘The Punisher’

    Rosario Dawson isn’t taking a shift on Netflix’s “The Punisher.”

    The actress has appeared as nurse Claire Temple in all of the streaming service’s Marvel series so far, first on “Daredevil” and through this summer’s “The Defenders.” But she won’t be making a cameo on “The Punisher,” which stars Jon Bernthal as the lethal Frank Castle.

    “At the end of the day, it’s really hard to get all of those casts together. For ‘The Defenders,’ it was difficult to get everybody together. People are busy!” she told Collider. “I really wanted to do a cameo on ‘The Punisher,’ but it doesn’t always work that way.”

    Claire had substantive roles in “Daredevil” and “Luke Cage,” but just minor cameos in “Jessica Jones” and “Iron Fist.”

    Perhaps this is a way of separating “The Punisher” as a spinoff, rather than a sibling to the other Marvel series. Frank Castle isn’t appearing in “The Defenders,” and Frank and Claire never met in “Daredevil.” The only related character joining Frank (so far) is Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen.

    “The Defenders” begins streaming August 18, while “The Punisher” is likely to premiere sometime later this year.