Illustration by Nino Jose Heredia/©Gulf News
It’s end-of-January freezing around midnight in Chinatown, New York City, and Luke Cage is dancing to Taylor Swift.
Okay, that’s misleading.
It’s actually actor Mike Colter, who plays the titular superhero in Marvel’s Luke Cage on Netflix, who’s shimmying his rear-end while performing an off-key rendition of Swifty’s Shake It Off.
It’s his way of staving off the cold. (Co-star Krysten Ritter, for her part, has virtually crammed “14 pairs of pants under my jeans” and put five coats on, comparing herself to the Michelin Man.)
A bunch of us journalists are watching from the side lines, endeared; we’ve been invited onto the totally secretive set of The Defenders, Netflix’s latest Marvel miniseries, an 8-episode ensemble epic arriving on the streaming service on August 18.
In the scene we get to watch, Colter and his fellow Defenders — Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Charlie Cox as Daredevil, and Finn Jones as Iron Fist (all of whom have their own shows) — are dashing in and out of Chikara Dojo onto the street outside to examine a bullet-ridden van, where a baddie lays unconscious. They check their surroundings, paranoid, until the director calls cut.
“That was a really boring scene,” Jones quips, when asked what had just happened.
“Yeah, not much there for you guys,” Colter says.
“Basically, Cage has just been missing for a little bit, and he’s been in some peril, and he just returns with his prey,” Jones adds, with all the practised ambiguity that’s become part and parcel of working for Marvel.
The hyped-up series will centre around these weathered warriors: Jessica Jones, a former superhero with PTSD who now pays bills as a private investigator in Hell’s Kitchen; Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer who moonlights as a masked vigilante named Daredevil; Luke Cage, a former convict turned superhero with unbreakable skin; and Danny Rand, a bratty billionaire and martial artist who calls upon the mystical powers of the Iron Fist to defeat evil.
Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Finn Jones (iron Fist), Charlie Cox (Daredevil) and Mile Colter (Luke Cage) in ‘The Defenders’.
The one thing they have in common is that they’re social outcasts. Through The Defenders, they’re forced to give up solitude and trust one another to overthrow The Hand, an evil entity led by the greed-driven Alexandra Reid (hello, Sigourney Weaver).
Halfway through the show’s filming schedule, Gulf News tabloid! sat down with the actors one-by-one in New York — except for Finn Jones and Mike Colter, who are as inseparable as their characters (Iron Fist and Luke Cage are partners in the comic books) — to talk about what’s in store for fans.
What has the mood been like on set?
Krysten Ritter: Honestly, it’s the [expletive] best. I think it’s the most fun onset experience I’ve had, ever. I know Mike Colter well, because we worked together on Jessica Jones. We’re total BFFs. Charlie is heaven, just a good guy. We’re always texting each other before work, like, ‘Do you want me to pick up a green juice? Do you need a coffee?’ Finn is just heaven in human form — he’s always got a boombox in his pocket, filling the room with music.
Why do The Defenders have to get together on the show?
Charlie Cox: It feels like they’re forced together. I think Matt [Daredevil] has to learn that this fight is too big for him alone. I had a lot of questions earlier. I was like, ‘Why don’t I walk out the door then? Why don’t I walk out the door then? Why don’t-‘ There was always a reason. There’s always a reason that they were able to pitch me.
What can viewers learn from The Defenders?
Finn Jones: The enemy we’re dealing with isn’t too [dissimilar] to the danger we’re seeing in America right now. The corruption and confusion we’re seeing happen in the world right now with our politics. [The enemy] is a power-hungry entity that has seeped their way into every aspect of human life — through the financial, through the politics. We’re there to try and dismantle that and expose it.
Who would you call in a real-life emergency out of the other three cast members?
Ritter: Probably Charlie. Because he’s very pragmatic, and he doesn’t fly off the handle. He’s a very steady and sturdy guy. If you were freaking out, you’d want to call him. If you want someone to freak out with you, [though], I’d call Mike.
Charlie, do you think you would be good in an emergency?
Cox: I’m one of those weird people who, if crisis happens, I’m very calm. I’m a good person to call. But I’m also the same person where, if it’s not really a crisis, if it’s just kind of a minor drama, I’m the worst person to call. If there are actual people in danger, I’ll probably be very level-headed, but if [it’s a minor inconvenience like] I can’t get cell reception and I need to call someone, I lose my [expletive].
Do you compare the success of your shows with your fellow actors?
Ritter: We’re all so stoked. We’re like, high five, we’ve got hit shows! We went to dinner the other night, the four of us, and people started to realise and freak out a little bit. It’s like we’re in a band.
Locations like Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem take up huge parts in the series. Do you feel more connected to those places now?
Mike Colter: When I was in Harlem, it was becoming gentrified... I read an article about it. These wonderful people that were in Harlem a hundred years ago, Malcom X, Marcus Garvey, Louis Armstrong, all these people that are synonymous with Harlem, what people are afraid of [now] is when you go to Harlem you won’t see any black people again. So this series of Luke Cage kind of helps [celebrate that].
Is it strange to be the only woman in the boy’s crew?
Ritter: I don’t feel that way. What I do love about Jessica is she’s never defined as gender first. She’s very androgynous. I’m faster in hair and make-up than the boys are. I’m in dirty, filthy jeans that I can sit on the ground in — I never have pressure to look beautiful or be perky.
How was it like working with Sigourney?
Jones: Sigourney’s amazing. She’s a team player through and through.
Colter: There are times where I want her to be a diva, so we can go home early. But she never is. She’s with us at four, five in the morning.
Jones: If anyone is a diva, it’s Mike. Luke Cage.
Colter: Yeah, Luke Cage comes out at about 4am.
Jones: We’ve actually got a drag act — it’s Luke Cage and Glitter Fist. It’s going to be a spin-off series that we’re going to be doing.
If the four of you were to fight each other, who would win?
Ritter: Jessica Jones. In terms of powers, there’s a bit of a hierarchy, right? Because Luke Cage is stronger than Jessica Jones, but Jessica Jones is stronger than Daredevil, but he’s a great fighter. Jessica is more of a bar brawler. She’d rather spit on you or kick you. Then, you know, Iron Fist has an Iron Fist. But I can also fly away. So, I don’t know.
Do you think The Defenders is just a one season thing?
Ritter: I honestly don’t know. I would do another one. I think everyone would. Logistically, it would probably be difficult to do because we have our own shows. I think maybe if it’s a big hit, we’ll do another.
Don’t miss it
The Defenders begins streaming on Netflix from August 18.
