Marvel's Defenders unites its four street-level heroes, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage
and Iron Fist against the forces of The Hand and, like any good Marvel production, it's
got plenty of hidden easter eggs, cameos, call-backs and in-jokes.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, it's Jan here, and today I'm revealing some of the best easter
eggs, moments and connections in The Defenders.
My giveaway for a Defenders or Punisher Funko Pop is also running on this video, so subscribe
and keep watching to find out how to win.
And, just before I delve in, be aware I will be discussing spoilers.
Luke Cage has certainly earned a reputation with the ladies in these Netflix shows, starting
with Jessica Jones in the first season of her series.
After they broke up, Luke moved to Harlem where his adventures on his own show gave
life to a series of Luke Cage coffee memes which picked up on his and other characters'
use of the word coffee as a euphemism for sex.
And The Defenders includes a clever wink to this in-joke via the Single Origin Coffee
posters you can spot behind Luke when he meets with Misty Knight.
In the Luke Cage series, after Misty asked him out for coffee and he confessed he didn't
like it, they ended up sleeping together.
That coffee joke continues in another Defenders episode with a coffee poster placed behind
Luke while he talks to Claire Temple, who he'd previously asked out for coffee in Luke
Cage, but she refused saying she wasn't going to sleep with him.
And, intriguingly, in the final episode of The Defenders, Jessica says to Luke that 'Maybe
we'll grab a coffee sometime or something', so perhaps we'll see Luke and Jessica back
together at some point in the future.
And during that conversation between Luke and Claire, she gives him the name of the
bar where he then goes to interrogate Turk.
The bar's name, "Trouble In A Pair Of Dice", previously appeared in an old New York Bulletin
newspaper that Karen Page was sifting through in Daredevil Season 2.
During Jessica Jones's investigations at the records office, there's a nod to the Hand
villain Nobu, who was rumoured to have lived three lifetimes back in the second season
of Daredevil.
One of the files Jessica stumbles across is for a corporation called Yoshioka, which is
Nobu's surname, and in the comics it was Kagenobu Yoshioka who founded the villainous organisation,
the Hand.
And in other hand-related matters, we all know Marvel loved to chop off hands and arms
in its Phase 2 movies as an homage to Star Wars, but, like other Marvel Netflix shows
before it, Defenders includes its own limb-losing WTF moment when Stick chops off his own hand
to escape Alexandra's clutches.
You could say there's a bit of ironic symbolism here in that he has to cut off his own hand
to escape the villainous group the Hand.
Interestingly also, this moment is probably a call-back to the time Stick sliced off a
Hand villain's hand in the first season of Daredevil.
Speaking of losing limbs, remember how in season 1 of Luke Cage, Misty Knight injured
her arm during the hostage siege at Harlem's Paradise?
Well, that was a hint to the comics where her character loses an arm during a bomb attack.
But season 1 of The Defenders took that hint and made it reality when Misty's arm was lopped
off at Midland Circle while she was battling the Hand alongside Colleen Wing.
Now, comic-book Misty was given a bionic arm by Tony Stark, and it seems she's being set
up for something similar on the show too.
However, I'm guessing it will be a different billionaire who'll be responsible for giving
Misty a super-powered limb in the Defenders-verse.
Given the fact that, at the end of the season, she's shown recuperating at a state-of-the-art
hospital owned by rich boy Danny Rand, I think Misty will have Danny and his connections,
as Colleen refers to them, to thank for her new bionic arm.
The patient care board in Misty's hospital room also includes a couple of hidden Marvel
easter eggs.
First is the name L Carter, short for Linda Carter, a nurse in the comics who specialised
in taking care of injured superheroes and took on the alias of "Night Nurse".
Also listed is Dr E Wirtham, an easter egg to Elias Wirtham, a doctor in the comics who
ended up becoming a vigilante and anti-hero called Cardiac.
I wonder whether we'll see Wirtham turn up as the character who fits Misty's new bionic
arm, or if this is just an easter egg, plain and simple.
On the subject of Misty, I've gotta say I loved seeing her hand Colleen her katana at
the police station, in a nice bit of foreshadowing of their fight scene on the show and also
of their partnership in the comics.
Of course, it was pretty cool seeing Misty and Colleen battle alongside each other in
the series, in a hat tip to their comic-book team-up as the 'Daughters of the Dragon'.
Plus, Colleen's white top and Misty's reddy-orange one echo their costumes in the comic books.
And as Misty's due to appear in season 2 of Iron Fist, it's fair to say we'll be seeing
a lot more of her and Colleen together!
Since Simone Missick and Jessica Henwick are both excellent in their respective roles,
this can only be a good thing!
Stan Lee makes a cameo in the show with a similar NYPD picture to ones we've seen in
many of his other Marvel Netflix cameos.
This particular poster adds a nice touch though with the line "Not all heroes wear capes",
a nod to the show's street-level heroes, obviously, none of whom wear capes.
And the show really gets into its stride in the third episode when it busts out an epic
corridor scene after all four heroes finally team up to take on the Hand at Midland Circle.
Corridor fight scenes are a staple of Marvel's Netflix shows and this one has a pretty spectacular
ending with Iron Fist using his punch to shatter Elektra's blade.
The show tips its hat in a couple of ways to the mythical dragon Danny Rand had to defeat
in order to become the Iron Fist.
There's the name of the restaurant, the "Royal Dragon", where the Defenders retreat to after
their first Midland Circle battle.
And Iron Fist's origins are also referenced in several jokes between Claire, Colleen,
Luke, and Danny about how crazy all his talk about dragons is.
By the way, it's great to see how the cinematography and production design from all the solo shows
really come together in The Defenders.
For example, just look at how the colours associated with Daredevil, Jessica Jones,
Luke Cage, and Iron Fist are reflected in the sign for the Royal Dragon restaurant,
where the Defenders team up, as well as in the lighting and fixtures and fittings inside
the restaurant.
There are also a few cool shout-outs to Game of Thrones, which is fitting as both Finn
Jones and Jessica Henwick starred in the HBO fantasy series.
Of course, it's a nice coincidence that there's lots of talk of dragons in both shows, even
if the Marvel shows don't have the budget to put them on screen in the way that Thrones
does.
More intriguingly, though, is the appearance in The Defenders of two lines that have found
their way into everyday language thanks to their popularity in Game of Thrones.
During the Midland Circle battle, when Bakuto is about to bring his sword down on Daredevil,
Colleen Wing blocks Bakuto with her own sword, and, as she does so, she says the line 'Not
Today', which is Syrio Forel's classic retort to the god of Death in Game of Thrones.
And in episode 8, Elektra says to Matt, 'You know nothing', something Ygritte often used
to tell Jon Snow on Game of Thrones.
There's a cool Spider-Man easter egg via the lyrics of the Wu-Tang Clan song "Protect Ya
Neck" which plays during the final fight scene and includes the line "Swingin' through your
town like your neighborhood Spider-Man".
At the end of the season, this scene of Matt Murdoch bandaged in bed, a beside-table and
window either side of him, a cross above him, and a nun sitting by his side, strongly evokes
this image from Daredevil issue 230.
The fact the show chose to include that huge visual easter egg has potentially massive
consequences for events in the next season of Daredevil, and I'll talk in lots more detail
about that in my upcoming video on what we can expect in Daredevil Season 3.
And the final Defenders episode also includes a post-credits teaser for the new Punisher
series with lots of Frank Castle easter eggs and references.
I've made a full video breakdown of that which you can watch by tapping the top-right of
the screen here, and there's also a link to that in the video description and at the end
of this video.
Now, which were your favourite easter eggs or moments in The Defenders?
And are there any other easter eggs or connections you spotted in the series?
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Thanks for watching and see you next time.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!