I know these are all kind of in real time, but roughly where are these?

So yeah, weve been saying months, or weeks to months.

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When did you learn you has the showrunner gig forThe Defenders?

Were you still doingDaredevilseason 2?

Still in the final movements ofDaredevilseason 2, yeah.

It was somewhere around shooting the finale and editing the finale.

Jeph Loeb kind of presented the opportunity, and it had to be kept secret for a little bit.

It was fun to get cast questions and to not be able to answer.

That was kind of fun.

Its kind of like planning a surprise party.

Daredevilis a main thread forThe Defenders.

Marvel had a sense of all the threads that would need to be picked up fromIron Fist.

Marvel didnt have story specifics in terms of what needed to happen inDefenders.

Yeah, and it does feel like that.

I was amazed by how in the first episode each of those little sections reintroduces everyone.

Its likeDaredevilseason 2, episode 13a.

Did you go to the other showrunners for advice as well?

Yeah, I mean they were around.

But yeah, it really helps geographically that were all in the same building.

We wanted to check that everyone was on the up and up.

How long did it take you to figure out an organic way to bring everybody together?

A couple of months, to be frank.

Well get to the stuff you came for.

It also felt like we need to do the two different threads first.

Thats notmaybe thats spoilery to talk aboutbut that felt like not the right way to tell this story.

These characters needed to get there on their own as opposed to being told, This is happening.

Jessica Jones has so much agency, Luke Cage has such a drive, Matt Murdock is so complicated.

Everyones just so unique.

So far, youve done a real good job of keeping it grounded in this corner of the universe.

But does that scale increase as we go forward?

Was there any pressure to bring a certain amount of spectacle later in the series?

So that was where that happened.

But here, I really think, yeah.

To a certain degree, sure, it gets a little bit bigger as it opens.

But really, in terms of spectacle and scale, these are really character-centered shows and really grounded ones.

We dont fight in the sky on this show.

It wasnt always about special effects, spectacles, and big bombastic fight scenes.

That felt just as big as something practically big, like cars exploding or stuff getting thrown around.

I mean, it never happens this way.

She wants to talk about the character.

So really, it was one of those dream scenarios.

We talked about this character a Sigourney Weaver throw in.

We never expected to get Sigourney Weaver on the line, and much less on set.

So I think we were all excited.

The writers were all excited.

The directors, Im sure theyre all thrilled about the cast as well.

The Marvel Netflix shows have been immune to that larger Marvel curse.

People say, Well, you know, the villains not really strong enough in the Marvel movies.

You cant say that about Kilgrave or Kingpin.

So where does Sigourneys Alexandra fit on this spectrum?

The villains…its even tricky to call them villains.

Something I noticed when working onDaredevilSeason 1, we never really talked about Fisk as being bad.

He was just this other character who wanted another version of New York.

Its really just about ultimately what people do in scenes.

People just making really great decisions.

Even Kilgraves power is relatively grounded, because its ultimately this mental sophisticated thing.

Weve just always been encouraged to make them as complicated as possible.

This is the data pipe that gave usHouse of Cards.

Theyre not interested in black and white villains.

They really want everyone to feel really complicated and interesting.

So thats the promise.

She was very excited by the idea of joining the Kilgraves and the Fisks of the Marvel Universe.

And it ultimately comes down to scenes.

And I think thats what she responded to.

So I hope that somehow answers that question.

I guess it does?

[Laughs] And this is an original character, right?

Alexandra is a character thats… You know what?

I cant answer that question.

Okay, fair enough.

So this has to go into production right afterIron Fistwrapped, right?

Were you guys already connecting the dots?

How long of a lead time in terms of pre-production and things like that?

This is a very challenging project.

Yeah, it was very challenging.

I believe almost everyone has worked in the Marvel-Netflix world.

Our heads of departments have all worked there before.

Its very much like the trains are moving.

People, get on them.

I think a lot of our crew came right after eitherIron FistorLuke CageSeason 1.

DaredevilSeason 2 was pretty large scale.

Was this a tougher production?

In some ways,DaredevilSeason 2 felt like a dry run to whatDefendersreally was.

We were casting them.

We were figuring out what their voices sounded like.

We were doing a lot of that, and that was really exciting.

Some of the similar but different challenges inDefenderswas that these characters already existed.

They were already casted.

Their voices were already distinct.

The actors certainly have really good senses of who they were.

They already exist on their own shows.

So theyre very different.

On one hand, yeah, it was nice to haveDaredevilSeason 2.

On the other hand, it was a lot of…

I jokingly called it leasing the car.

What kind of input from Marvel do you get?

Its interesting the stuff thats very important versus the stuff that theyre open to hear new ideas on.

That is really interesting.

Its really about the characters and who the people are.

Marvels The Defenders premieres on Netflix on August the 18th