Could The Defenders show up in Avengers: Infinity War?

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With each new film and TV show, the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets a little bit bigger. Its most recent expansion came in the form of the excellent Jessica Jones, a 13-episode Netflix TV series which went down a storm upon its release in November. It's the second of four planned series - Daredevil was released earlier in 2015, and Luke Cage and Iron Fist will get their own shows next year - and they will eventually team-up to form The Defenders. But what are the chances of joining The Avengers?

Speaking to Super Interessante, Anthony Russo - who will co-direct both Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 & 2 - had this to say on the matter: "The films are controlled by a group led by Kevin Feige, so they function as a unit. Other products, even if they are from Marvel, are controlled by others. Then there is the possibility of a crossover, but it’s more complicated…".

"Fox holds the rights to some of Marvel’s most popular characters, as does Sony and others", Russo continued. "As storytellers, we only have control over what happens in Marvel movies, but everything is possible, Spider-Man (whose rights were held by Sony) became possible!"

Though Russo leaves the door open for a possible team-up between the Netflix heroes and Captain America and co in the future, for now it seems understandably unlikely that it will happen. As great as it would be to see the two super-teams on the big screen together, the story complications could be insurmountable. That's not even taking into account the immense cooperation that would need to take place from multiple companies. But never say never, right?

Directed by the Russo Bros, Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1 is slated for release in UK cinemas on April 27 2018, before opening in US theatres on May 4 2018. Season 1 of Daredevil and Jessica Jones are both available on Netflix now.

Images: Marvel

Amon Warmann
Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.