Every Marvel fan in the New York metropolitan area had funneled into the Main Stage of the Javits Center on Saturday evening for New York Comic Con’s premiere presentation of the new series Iron Fist. However, those lucky masses weren’t only treated to a look at Daniel Rand’s forthcoming adventures. After Marvel TV head honcho Jeff Loeb and the Iron Fist cast presented a series of clips and the show’s first trailer, the panel closed out with a few surprise guests. First, we welcomed Jon Bernthal, the Marvel television universe’s Punisher, whose titular series officially began production on Monday, Oct 3. And he didn’t come alone—Deborah Ann Woll, known as Daredevil‘s Karen Page, showed up to confirm that she too will be starring on The Punisher series.
Then, Iron Fist star Finn Jones returned to the spotlight with his, in his words, “friends”: Mike Colter (whom we all know as Luke Cage), Krysten Ritter (a.k.a. Jessica Jones), and Charlie Cox (the Daredevil himself). But this wasn’t just a feel good superhero roundup; the party accompanied perhaps the biggest news to come out of NYCC this year. The inevitable The Defenders series, which will round up the aforementioned do-gooders as The Avengers did for Marvel’s big screen heroes, has finally cast its big bad.
“We have not told you who the villain of The Defenders is,” Loeb said, before stringing us along for a few agonizing seconds. “She is Golden Globe-, Emmy-nominated, Oscar-nominated…” The pause felt infinite, but in the end, the news was worth the wait: “Sigourney Weaver.”
Weaver appeared like the superhuman entity she is, evoking from the crowd an elated chant of, “Holy s**t!” No other phrase could better exemplify the communal feeling.
Are you pumped for Ripley’s villainous turn on The Defenders? Which of Marvel’s many baddies do you think she’ll play? Sound off in the comments!
Image: Marvel/Netflix
