The Defenders needs to be balanced but the showrunner admits "there's never too much Jessica"

Remember what a difficult task The Avengers seemed to have, balancing all these fan-favorite characters together for the first time in one piece of feature length entertainment? Now imagine how tough it must be for The Defenders, which needs to do the same for characters with seasons worth of background and expectations all in the space of eight episodes. Showrunner Marco Ramirez explained in an interview for the latest issue of SFX that it's a delicate proposition, but not overwhelming if you look at it in the right light.

SUBSCRIBE: Buy a digital or physical subscription to SFX and look forward to this kind of Marvel news and more, straight to your mailbox/online device every month!

“It’s a lot like any great jazz band,” Ramirez said. “Everyone needs to get a solo. We want to showcase everyone wherever possible. It was a balance between making sure no one character steals the show and at the same time completely understanding that in some storylines some characters are going to go into second gear while the others go into third or fourth. And that balanced throughout."

"It was a lot like looking at it musically, looking at it like an equaliser, trying to figure out, ‘Okay, what levels are the correct levels? How much Matt is too much Matt? Is there too much Jessica?'” Ramirez continued, before confirming what we all already knew. “The correct answer is there’s never too much Jessica."

Even if Krysten Ritter admits that Jessica Jones is "still kind of an asshole" in The Defenders we have to agree. And for now we'll just keep looking forward to a potential Avengers/Defenders team-up, as envisioned by Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Don't forget to subscribe to SFX for more in-depth stories from the MCU and beyond!

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.