'Infinity War' Really Almost Included Netflix's 'Defenders' at One Point

There were a truckload of Marvel heroes packed into Avengers: Infinity War, but the epic chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t include the grungy, scrappy heroes from Netflix. In a new interview, Infinity War screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely revealed that there were talks to bring in the likes of Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and Daredevil, from Marvel’s The Defenders. But in the end, they decided against doing what they called a “glorified cameo.”

On Tuesday, Collider published a lengthy video interview with McFeely and Markus, in which the screenwriters talked about all things Infinity War, including the absence of the Defenders. As it turns out, McFeely said that they did consider including the Marvel/Netflix characters, but the scope of the film would become unwieldy and that their presence would be minimal, at best.

“We talk about that all the time,” said McFeely. “In a movie this big, we certainly had the conversation, ‘Should we put Luke Cage in this? Here we are in New York…’ That kind of stuff. As you could probably tell, it would be just a glorified cameo at this point.”

The screenwriters further called it a no-win scenario, because it would be “asking too much” of the audience to come in with knowledge of TV shows on a service they may or may not be subscribed to.

Another issue with Marvel/Netflix was the ending of Infinity War, which had Thanos wipe out half the universe. It would have been too much of a coincidence to spare all of the Defenders, mostly because they have new seasons coming up very soon. “We couldn’t bring in that many people and not blip a bunch of them [as] just an odds thing,” Markus said. He jokingly added, “Next year, Daredevil starring Rosario Dawson!” (Would watch, TBH.)

While logistically it makes all the sense in the world to only feature the Marvel cinematic heroes and exclude the TV characters, it is tough to swallow the interconnected nature of the MCU and not have that pay off in something as big and important as Infinity War or even next year’s Avengers 4.

Avengers: Infinity War is in theaters now.