Netflix has slowly been building up to the release of its Marvel Comics-based superhero team-up series "The Defenders," first with "Daredevil" and later with "Jessica Jones" and "Luke Cage." The release of "Iron Fist" at the end of this week will mark the final solo superhero outing before the team can fully assemble, but that's not keeping the wheels of production from turning. "The Defenders" has been filming for some time now, and fans just got their first glimpse at an on-location shoot in New York City that appears to show the aftermath of some serious action.

A new clip published to YouTube by ComicCon.news shows the cast of "The Defenders" first preparing for the scene in front of a massive green screen in downtown New York City. With police cars and traffic moving around them, the group, which seems to consist of Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Danny Rand, Colleen Wing and Misty Knight, are all hightailing it away from something that has left the crew bloody and bruised. Whatever happened was serious, too, as Luke must carry an injured Misty as the group flees. It's worth noting that in the scene one of the series' key characters, Daredevil, is absent.

The video itself doesn't reveal very much about the plot of Netflix's "The Defenders," but it does hint at the larger conflict at the core of the series that is seemingly so severe it forces the four reclusive heroes to assemble. The green screen behind the group begs more questions than it offers answers. The screen may simply offer a way to wall off the cast from the rest of New York City, or it could stand in for a burnt-out shop front or a mystical portal. There's no telling just yet.

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"Iron Fist" looks to add a mystical element to Netflix's Marvel offerings. The character is the only Defender who received his powers through mystical means, having acquired his fiery fists from an ancient dragon. In their comic books incarnation, the Defenders were superhero outsiders who frequently fought mystical and supernatural threats. First appearing in 1971 in "Marvel Feature" #1, the team was originally founded by Doctor Strange and would go on to feature a rotating cast of characters who never easily slotted into the superhero archetype.

Debuting on Netflix in 2017, "The Defenders" is a production of Marvel Television developed for television by Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez, starring Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter, Finn Jones, Elodie Yung and Sigourney Weaver.

(via ScreenRant)