Marvel's The Defenders: A New Teaser, and Release Date on Netflix Revealed

Marvel’s The Defenders - the superhero team-up featuring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist - will arrive August 18, Netflix revealed in a coded fashion on Tuesday.

The streaming service released a new teaser for the upcoming series, which arrives on the back of standalone shows for each of our characters. In the short clip, the four aforementioned street-level heroes are travelling in an elevator for a building called Midland Circle Financial.

If you’ve seen the second season of Daredevil, you’ve heard the name before. It’s where Matt Murdock and his ex-girlfriend Elektra Natchios find themselves during the investigation into the Yakuza. But instead of a building, they just find an unbelievably deep hole.

In The Defenders, it does seem there’s an actual building as well, what with the teaser showing them getting into the elevator on the 45th floor. From the looks of it, the four appear to be tired – they are audibly huffing and puffing – which suggest this takes place right after a big fight sequence. Sigourney Weaver plays the big bad named Alexandra in the series, though she’s not seen here.

As the elevator starts to go down, Jones swing her head around, and notices the CCTV camera through which our mini-teaser (it’s barely 15 seconds) is broadcasting. Predictably, she jumps and knocks it out. Another interesting thing before we lose footage – Murdock isn’t in his costume, but a business suit, and face mask combo.

The show’s release date was revealed in two different ways – one directly via the video, in the time-stamp in the top-right corner (it reads “8:18:20:17”) and another through an IP address hidden in the top-left corner (“ip/dns //: 23.253.120.81”). If you type the latter in your browser in the proper URL format (http://23.253.120.81), it will take you to the website for fictional tabloid newspaper, New York Bulletin. There, hidden in the footer, you’ll find your proof.

Alongside that, the website also has imaginary covers of the newspaper featuring The Defenders, plus one that reads “Midland Circle Rises to New Heights”, a nod to its importance in the mini-series. There’s also a video interview with Iron Fist characters Joy and Ward Meachum, as well as an advertisement for Colleen Wing’s Chikara Dojo, that leads to another website, which comes with its own little promo video.