The Future of The Hand Addressed By 'The Defenders' Showrunner

SPOILERS FOR THE DEFENDERS BELOW!

As the culmination of everything they’ve been setting up since the first season of Daredevil, The Defenders sought to resolve the remaining threads that were open. Since Steven DeKnight showran Daredevil Season 1, story threads relating to the Hand were slowly being seeded. And while the show failed to give audiences a complete sense of closure with the ancient evil organization, it finally put an end to the Hand. Or at least we think so.

At the end of the season’s climactic battle, the remaining leaders of the Hand were left behind Midland Circle to die in the fiery C4 explosion set up by the Defenders. We saw Murakami, Madame Gao and Elektra perish in the ensuing explosion and falling building. And given that you had to decapitate members of the Hand to completely seal their fates, one of the questions being asked by fans is whether the remaining leaders of the Hand survived that explosion or not. In a post-mortem interview by Entertainment Weekly with The Defenders showrunner **Marco Ramirez, this very question was brought up.

Well, in the Marvel world — and as Jeph Loeb, the Marvel TV head, would say — in the comic-book world, you can always find a way. The story finds a way, so who knows? But we definitely felt like we wanted this to be the end of this specific show, so while I don’t know if it’s the end of the Hand forever — who knows what will happen in the future — it just felt like it’s the end of this story in the lore. Particularly for Iron Fist, we wanted to close that chapter [of the Hand’s story]. I don’t know what the future holds. That’s a Jeph Loeb question [laughs] but for me and for the writers’ room, it felt right to end the story here.

Fans often say that a character really isn’t dead until you actually see an actual corpse. In the Hand’s case, the fact that we never shown the aftermath of Midland Circle toppling down definitely leaves a lot of room for a Madame Gao, Murakami and Elektra return. Marco Ramirez seems to think so based on his comments. Like Hydra, the Hand is an organization that has managed to stay relevant in the Marvel Universe throughout the company’s history. There are definitely moments in the comics the writers could pull from that could smoothly incorporate the likes of Gao and Murakami in the MCU’s future. They’ve seeded some elements of Shadowland here and there and the Hand seems to be a large enough organization to retain some of its structure after what went down in Midland Circle. Personally, I feel like the Marvel/Netflix universe needs a break from all the mystical aspects they can’t seem to fully commit to. If Gao, Elektra and Murakami were to return, I’d prefer it to happen way down the line.

Source: EW