Welcome to this week’s episode of MCUEx Story. Today, we take a look at the events that transpired that fateful day of May 3, 2017 and shaped the life of a young Charles. He was in the theater when it happened, watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. His third time which was still a blast. In fact, the whole theater was having a blast. Packed crowd, great energy. It was the kind of atmosphere that would make any film as fun as Vol. 2 10000 times more exciting. Having been drinking a cold glass of coconut-mango shake in a freezing theater for the past hour or so, it was inevitable that Charles would feel the urge to relieve himself in the toilet sometime during the film. And it was during this trip to the men’s room that Charles glanced at his phone to check the time. 8:30 PM. Still got an hour to go with this movie. Thinking nothing of the time, Charles went on with his business and took that whizz. Little did he know, it was also during this moment in time that a trailer was published on the far reaches of the interwebs.
It would only take an hour and a half to realize his mistake of not bothering to check the happenings online, in the middle of a crowded Starbucks. Fast forward to now, as he types up whatever intro fluff he can think of for the trailer breakdown article, he hopes that his regret of missing out alleviates through the sheer greatness of the trailer. And what do you know? It seems to be working.
Bullshitting aside, here’s my trailer breakdown.
The trailer opens brilliantly with an emphasis on Jessica Jones’ investigative shit stirring. Spliced with images of a broken down street with fire trucks blaring, we hear Misty deliver the authoritative sass we’ve come to love from her. Unsurprisingly, Jessica’s in trouble for jeopardizing a police case she shouldn’t have stuck her nose in, resulting in the death of someone.
My more observant co-writers pointed out that one of the folders Misty dumps the JONES folder on has the name DUCASSE, MALCOLM written on it, hinting that the likable Malcolm could be involved in said case. We’re hoping that it’s something else and that Malcolm doesn’t bite the dust unceremoniously as a minor plot point. After what went down with Kilgrave, I don’t have a doubt that the police pulled up a file on Malcolm.
And here’s the moment that made me gasp like an idiot in the middle of a crowded Starbucks. Straight out of the mind of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos‘ page in Alias, in comes Matt Murdock insistently offering his help to Jessica, beginning their roller coaster of a friendship. The fact that Matt is so insistent in this scene makes me think that Jessica has a lead on this Hand fiasco he’s presumably looking into.
Luke Cage cruising around in the open is one thing I’m dying to know considering he gets jailed at the end of his show. How does he get out scot free? Does Foggy bail him out? Also, that shot of Pop’s Barber Shop is a nice callback.
“How does being Harlem’s hero allow you to live an actual life?” Gee I dunno Claire. How does a night shift nurse manage to involve herself in four completely separate larger-than-life circumstances in a span of a year and a half?
We see Danny chase a mysterious gas-masked dude in an abandoned building. If I had to guess who it was, it would be this guy. Knowing that The Defenders takes place a month after Iron Fist, it’s easy to see how Danny comes into the play in the story. The question is how far he’ll be into his investigation. He seemed pretty clueless about anything related to the Hand in his show so I’m hoping he dons a more serious deadset approach with the Hand.
Alas! For the first time ever in the history of Marvel, we finally see a live-action Luke Cage and Danny Rand meet in the flesh and boy is it fantastic. Between their banter and them getting a dose of each other’s abilities, it is beyond me why a Heroes For Hire show hasn’t been commissioned yet.
Stick gives a roll call, mentioning traits our heroes are known for and we see some great looking shots of each character. Murdock looming over the city without a mask, him opening his secret costume bag, Jessica beating up some guy in a character which I’m hoping is the guy she threatened to laser beam last season, Luke Cage destroying police property, Danny still using his right hand to use the Iron Right Fist.
And we see Elektra from where we last saw her. Only instead of her being sealed into the tomb, it’s her about to be woken up from the dead. Judging from the teaser that went out the other day, we’ll finally get to see how one gets resurrected by an ancient ninja cult.
Something shakes the streets of New York (hence the broken down street in the beginning) along with our heroes. This is the scene I’ve been analyzing the most, namely who or what exactly is responsible for this blast of energy. Some stuff I noticed in the scene of the team getting blown away: there’s a decapitated head on the ground; Stick is with them; Daredevil is without a mask; Iron Fist is about to punch someone; Luke Cage and the team are facing each other; and there’s no one else notable in sight. So it’s either they chose shots that specifically don’t reveal who’s doing what (where my Kirigi fans at?!) or the one blasting that wave is a literal unseen supernatural force.
YAS QUEEN SIGOURNEY. The person who up to now I still think is the leader of the Hand, vessel of the Beast, and possible reimagining of Daredevil villain Alexander Bont.
The gang seems to be having dinner when someone butts in which the trailer makes out to be Stick but I think its someone else. Jessica looks terrified at the sight of the person and we actually see Alexandra in the same scene later on. I’m guessing she and her people show up first, followed by Stick and his sword.
We see a scene reminiscent of young Elektra’s training montage back in Daredevil Season 2. It’s her kicking a bunch of grown men’s asses with as much style as you’d expect from her. Looks like the Hand will train her in their fighting ways.
Cue action montage.
Here’s an interesting shot I’d live to give my two cents on. For some weird reason that I can’t explain with logic, I actually think this woman wielding a katana in a gloved hand and a black ceremonial dress is Sigourney.
It’s great to see Daredevil do some legit real ninja shit.
And here we are introduced to what I think will be the most threatening and dangerous group of villains the MCU will ever see: the Collapsible Baton Gang, superior to the totally inferior Hatchet Gang from Iron Fist.
Elektra has a cool looking costume update! Which makes the obsessive Daredevil-costume fan in me infuriated that Elektra got an improved more interesting shade of red than Daredevil’s indistinguishable maroon. And on the topic of colors, one of the best aspects of this trailer is the colors. We’ve never seen this amount of brightness and color in a Netflix show yet so I’m absolutely loving this change of pace.
And we see the lead up to what will be the hallway scene to end hallway scenes. It’s the sequence adjacent to the elevator tease that excited the hell out of fans. Hilarious back and forth between Jessica and Matt aside, I’m sure my co-editor Rhiannon is losing her mind over the confirmation that Matt’s mask is indeed Jessica’s scarf.
Danny lands the coup de grace of the trailer while Elektra approaches them from behind. Now, is it just me or does Finn Jones look like a better fighter this time around? No disrespect to the All-Father of showrunners Scott Buck but I absolutely love Marco Ramirez‘s take on these other characters not Daredevil related. From the motions of each fight choreography to those subtle visual callbacks, it’s super exciting to see a show filled with individualistic characters and styles take a brand new form of its own.
The bit saved in the end perfectly exemplifies what they’re offering with this team up project they announced 4 years ago: damn good fun. At the end of the day, amidst all the crazy plot points and intricate fight scenes, what will be the most important part of this show is how the chemistry works on screen. It’s why the Avengers is such a success. You can’t beat character relationships. And if this trailer is any indication of what we’re getting for the show, we’re absolutely in for a treat.
