The 'Luke Cage' panel at SDCC featured scoop from the cast and a teaser for the long-awaited 'Defenders' team-up.
"You haven't seen anything yet."
That's quite the promise when it comes to Marvel's upcoming Netflix slate, considering what we've already seen in the first seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. But it's exactly what head of TV, Jeph Loeb, teased during the Luke Cage Comic-Con panel on Thursday.
"For the fan boys, there's plenty lot of action. A bit of romance," Power Man himself, Mike Colter, told the crowd. "But it's a drama first and foremost, set in a superhero world."
The panel was chock-full of unseen footage from the upcoming series, plenty proving the oft-hoodied hero is bulletproof (and punch-proof and explosion-proof). It also introduced us to two of Marvel's most badass women yet: Simone Missick's Detective Misty Knight and Alfre Woodard's villainous "Black" Mariah Dillad.
"This is this iconic woman who is so strong and self-assured," Missick said. "She's not the wife, she's not the girlfriend, she's not somebody's side piece. She's her own thing. For all the Misty Knight fans out there, this show gives you everything you want from her and more."
Missick's detective is one half of that aforementioned romance, though -- and, if the scenes screened for Ballroom 20 is any indication, the steamy sex scenes might rival those on Jessica Jones. Speaking of: while there was no sign of Krysten Ritter's Jones, Loeb did confirm that Rosario Dawson is part of the cast -- she was just absent because she's busy filming another Marvel show.
Bonus fun fact: showrunner Cheo Coker (Southland) revealed every episode of Luke Cage is named after a different Gang Starr song, so that the first season "feels like an album." "That is what I call the Wu Tang-ification of the Marvel Universe," he explained with a laugh. "It's got attitude, it's got grit, but it's elegant at the same time."
All of that would be more than enough for any other panel, but this is Marvel. So, the studio also used to opportunity to announce that Daredevil has been renewed for a third season. Then a certain skull-emblazoned vigilante -- you may know him as Frank Castle -- made a cameo to tease his Punisher spin-off series. "Time to get going!" Jon Bernthal exclaimed.
And then Marvel dropped the first footage from Netflix's fourth superhero series, Iron Fist, including a video introduction from the man who plays Danny Rand, Game of Thrones star Finn Jones.
If you're the type of person who enjoys reading a description of video footage, here it is: The clip starts with a young Danny and his mom on a crashing airplane. There's a shot of an iPod in the snow and another of two monks coming across the boy. Then we're back in New York, where a barefoot and adult Danny walks down the street. There's a quick flash of him in a mental hospital! A quick flash of him breaking through a cement wall. Then, as he steps towards the camera, a voice says, "Hello, Danny."
Cut to the title card, with the "o" in Iron Fist replaced with this symbol:
And then, because The Defenders roster is finally complete, there was one final surprise: a teaser for the Avengers-esque event series, with each hero's name being revealed before a voiceover by Scott Glenn's Stick warns, "You think the four of you can save New York? You can't even save yourselves." The long-awaited team-up also finally has a release date, kind of: 2017.
