Why Daredevil Didn't Recruit The Defenders, The Punisher in Season 3

CBR

By Renaldo Matadeen

Published Oct 21, 2018

The Daredevil showrunner explains why S3 of the Netflix series didn't have the vigilante calling in the Defenders for assistance in Hell's Kitchen.

SPOILER WARNING: Minor spoilers ahead for Season 3 of Netflix's Daredevil, streaming now.

In Season 3 of Netflix's Daredevil, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) wages war on Kingpin/Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) after the villain's freed from prison. However, it's not just the criminal mastermind he's up against, but the FBI and its lethal agent, Ben Poindexter, (aka Bullseye in-the-making). This leads fans to wonder, why didn't Daredevil just call the Defenders for help?

"Well, there's a number of reasons," showrunner Erik Oleson revealed to ComicBook.com. "There's the story reason of that Matt feels that it is his responsibility that Fisk's release in large part is on him for not having taken care of it the first time around, or the second time around. And so Matt Murdock is determined to right the wrongs that he himself set in motion."

"He also, in a kind of a spiritual way, feels like God is speaking to him and is putting in front of him a raison d'etre, a reason to keep going and to keep existing after his heartbreaking life turn at the end of Defenders, where he walked out of the building, Elektra did not," he added. "And in Episode 1 of this season, Matt essentially attempts suicide by thug. So he has spiritual and emotional reasons for why he doesn't call in the Defenders."

In Season 2, Daredevil found an ally in the Punisher against the Hand, which led fans to believe at some point, he'd ask one of the Defenders to help him even the numbers. Luke Cage appeared in Jessica Jones, Iron Fist in Luke Cage and so on, but in Daredevil, Oleson just wanted to keep Matt isolated for drama -- a tad bittersweet, as we don't know the status of Defenders, and both Luke Cage and Iron Fist have been canceled.

"Then there's the kind of meta reason why I didn't want to do that [add heroes], and if one of the basic rules of great drama writing is that your protagonist must be out gunned by the agonist or else there's no dramatic tension," Oleson said. "If Matt can simply call Luke Cage and Jessica Jones and Danny Rand to come in and beat these other villains, your dramatic structure is lopsided. It becomes boring. It's like suddenly the heroes have all the power and the villain is outgunned, and that becomes a major impediment to telling a great story. So that's the other reason we did it, truthfully."

Now available on Netflix, Marvel’s Daredevil Season 3 stars Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Joanne Whalley as Sister Maggie, Wilson Bethel as Benjamin Poindexter, Jay Ali as Rahul “Ray” Nadeem and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk.