The Defenders--Marvel/Netflix
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
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Finn Jones is very hyped in this picture. The others are like, "Yes, we know, the kid is new..."
If Mephisto takes the form of Matt's mother, maybe we'll get the line "There is no Maggie, only Mephisto."
Would it be fair to say that, of the four leads, Finn Jones is the one who looks least like his comics counterpart? I don't have a very good sense of what the comics character looks like unmasked, but Google turns up images of him being a clean-cut blond man. I suppose Jones's hair could be considered dirty blond, but it's a lot curlier, and he looks generally scruffier, plus there's the beard. I suppose Charlie Cox is the most divergent in terms of hair color (for some reason, male actors playing redheaded comics characters never dye their hair to match the role -- see also Jimmy Olsen -- even though actresses playing redheads always do), but otherwise he's in the ballpark. And Ritter and Colter are both good physical matches to their characters.
I forget, did they ever establish what happened to Matt's mother on the show? I know in the comics she had pnd and eventually became a Nun and I have a vague memory of the Sister in the first season's Stick episode make some offhand comment about her still being alive, but I can't recall if there was any further elaboration.
Jessica Jones in the comics has brown hair. Ritter actually more strongly resembles Jessica Drew than Jessica Jones.
I'd say Charlie Cox doesn't look much like comics Daredevil (unless you count Daredevil Noir where the resemblance is uncanny). Matt Murdock is generally clean shaven, while Cox seems genetically incapable of that. He's also a redhead (at times even leaning towards strawberry blond - in other words, not dark hair). In fairness to the Netflix show, Cox stated they tested out him with red hair and looked weird, which is why they didn't do it.
I've felt that way from the start. I'm hoping once I can see him inhabit the role I will feel differently but my preconceptions have been distracting me at the moment.
I see the difference between dark brown and black hair as a matter of degree, like the difference between light redhead and dark redhead. Perhaps because my own hair is sort of on the edge between dark brown and black. (And characters like Famke Janssen's Jean Grey and Kirsten Dunst's MJ have changed their shade of red hair in every movie anyway.)
And I'm not speaking in absolutes, just saying that some of the actors are closer matches than others. Of the four, Colter seems the closest match (at least to how the character is generally drawn in recent years), Ritter second, Cox maybe a distant third, and Jones fourth, though maybe those last two could be flipped or at least tied.
In the comics Murdock's hair is literally orange.
Probably the actor whose hair color is closest to that was Donny Most while he was playing Ralph Malph in "Happy Days"
Of course, the reason so many comics characters have bright blond or red hair is because they used to have only 4-color printing and couldn't handle too many color variations -- also because bright hair colors required using less black ink. The color limitations are also why so many superheroes have blue costumes (like Batman) or even blue fur (like Beast and Nightcrawler). The blue was originally supposed to represent highlights on black (because it was easier to print blue than gray reliably), but over time, the black receded and the blue took over to save on inking. (Even Spider-Man's costume was originally meant to be black and red. Not a lot of blue spiders out there.)
It tends to vary. During Frank Miller's run, it was a kind of sandy blonde to strawberry blonde. Mark Waid (or Javier Rodriguez to be more accurate) definitely went a bright orange.In the comics Murdock's hair is literally orange.
Probably the actor whose hair color is closest to that was Donny Most while he was playing Ralph Malph in "Happy Days"
Here is a picture. I included four different Matt Murdocks. The first two are Frank Miller (the original run with colors either by Glynis Wein or Klaus Janson and Born Again with colors by Max Scheele). The next is Mark Waid (colors by Javier Rodriguez). The last one is from the very first Stan Lee issue (colors apparently uncredited). As you can see, there's a lot of variation but a tendency towards lighter colors during Miller's time (probably because he's clearly based on Robert Redford). No matter what, he's never dark haired.
ETA: I'd forgotten The Other Murdock Papers has done a rundown on this:
Locks Without Fear - Matt Murdock's Fabulous Hair. There's a good picture of Gene Colan's time on art, which is a much brighter red overall that I wish I had included in the above image.
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Ritter looks pretty different from how Jessica used to be drawn in the comics too.
After looking through the character gallery linked above, I was thinking that Bridget Regan, from Legend of the Seeker, Agent Carter, White Collar and The Last Ship would be a pretty good choice for alternate casting.
After looking through the character gallery linked above, I was thinking that Bridget Regan, from Legend of the Seeker, Agent Carter, White Collar and The Last Ship would be a pretty good choice for alternate casting.
Damn, that report confirms an 8-episode season. Most reports have said the same thing, but I recall seeing one from a convention that said 13.
Frankly, as entertaining as all of the previous seasons have been, each has dragged at some point or other for at least 2-3 episodes for me, filling for time to meet the Netflix model. In fact after Luke Cage came out, as much as most of the critics appeared to enjoy it, there were a few opinion pieces about how, as a rule, the rigid nature of the 13-episode structure of Netlfix is both a blessing and a curse when it comes to story momentum.
Given we can have a perfectly fine Avengers film in just over 2 hours and 20 mins bringing disparate groups together to smash a puny god into the floor of Stark Tower, 8 hours is more than enough to tell one big adventure story for me:
A few episodes to wind it all up
A few episodes to lay out the threat and peril
A few episodes for "Our Heroes" to worry, rally and get downbeaten
A few final episodes to make a plan and bring down the Big Bad
(Or any structure more involved and interesting that this crass one above)
Still plenty of time for good character growth, interplay, fun and hijinx.
Stranger Things proved that in 8 episodes you can introduce and develop 10+ new characters (to differing degrees, of course) propel a mystery story that moves at a fair, even pace and never feel like the plot is dragging or the character interplay stale.
I'm all for more adaptable season structures on this "binge model" of Amazon and Netflix. Some shows/seasons warrant 13 episodes if the ideas and structure is there, some warrant just 6.
Bloodlines is a very good example of a show that started strong in its opening episodes, then meandered for 5-or-so episodes and lost viewership/interest, when anyone who watched the show will say that the best material is at the back end. Many viewers never made it that far to find the good stuff. Similarly, though on a real "network", Braindead is a fun, amusing idea, stretched WAY beyond its story means. At 13 episodes it became a slog, whilst at 6 it would have been a fun summer adventure.
The more that these media providers work with their series creators to find the best tone/length of their shows, the more successful they will be, rather than imprinting a "We need this many to fit The Model"
Plus it can be seen another way - Defenders has X amount of dollars (likely around the $50m mark). Spend it BIG over 8 episodes or spread it more over 13? Daredevil has a $4m per episode budget. They could want to make each episode bigger, more Super-hero-esque in its visual flair/SFX/stunts etc. Perhaps they are spending $6m an episode instead to ramp up the uniqueness of the event?
Hugo - After DD/JJ/LC, bring on the fun
Given we can have a perfectly fine Avengers film in just over 2 hours and 20 mins bringing disparate groups together to smash a puny god into the floor of Stark Tower, 8 hours is more than enough to tell one big adventure story for me:
A few episodes to wind it all up
A few episodes to lay out the threat and peril
A few episodes for "Our Heroes" to worry, rally and get downbeaten
A few final episodes to make a plan and bring down the Big Bad
(Or any structure more involved and interesting that this crass one above)
Still plenty of time for good character growth, interplay, fun and hijinx.
Stranger Things proved that in 8 episodes you can introduce and develop 10+ new characters (to differing degrees, of course) propel a mystery story that moves at a fair, even pace and never feel like the plot is dragging or the character interplay stale.
I'm all for more adaptable season structures on this "binge model" of Amazon and Netflix. Some shows/seasons warrant 13 episodes if the ideas and structure is there, some warrant just 6.
Bloodlines is a very good example of a show that started strong in its opening episodes, then meandered for 5-or-so episodes and lost viewership/interest, when anyone who watched the show will say that the best material is at the back end. Many viewers never made it that far to find the good stuff. Similarly, though on a real "network", Braindead is a fun, amusing idea, stretched WAY beyond its story means. At 13 episodes it became a slog, whilst at 6 it would have been a fun summer adventure.
The more that these media providers work with their series creators to find the best tone/length of their shows, the more successful they will be, rather than imprinting a "We need this many to fit The Model"
Plus it can be seen another way - Defenders has X amount of dollars (likely around the $50m mark). Spend it BIG over 8 episodes or spread it more over 13? Daredevil has a $4m per episode budget. They could want to make each episode bigger, more Super-hero-esque in its visual flair/SFX/stunts etc. Perhaps they are spending $6m an episode instead to ramp up the uniqueness of the event?
Hugo - After DD/JJ/LC, bring on the fun
When it was originally announced, they considered the possibility of only six. To me, this is more episodes than I was expecting.
Stranger Things did a lot with 8 and the Netflix Marvel series have felt a little padded out to me as well so this might not be a bad thing.
8 sounds like a pretty good number to me. Since the characters will have all been introduced this means they should be able to keep things movie pretty fast. As good as they have been, I do have to agree that the other series have been a bit slow moving at times, so hopefully 8 episodes for The Defenders should keep it from having that problem.
I certainly agree with all of that, but my concern is whether enough time is given to the four major characters, both individually and as a whole, along with the their supporting characters, to do them all justice. Now, I'm not expecting a whole storyline for just Foggy and/or Missy and/or Trish, but I don't want them to be throwaway characters either. I trust the show runners that they know what they're doing and I agree it shouldn't just be 13 episodes for the sake of being 13 episodes, but from my perspective 8 doesn't seem quite enough.