Netflix released its second teaser for its “Defenders” team-up on Tuesday and it may provide some clues as to when it’ll finally premiere.
The short video — which was deleted by Netflix shortly after release — shows the four heroes entering an elevator at Midland Circle Financial. They stand around for a bit before Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) notices there’s a camera and disables it.
The most important aspects of the video are in the top corners. In the right is a timestamp, which stops when Jones takes down the camera on 08:18:20:17 — which seems to imply the show will premiere this summer on Aug. 18.
There’s also an IP address that’s worth noting. If you also input the numbers displayed in the top left corner of the screen into your web browser — 23.253.120.81 — you get redirected to a website for the New York Bulletin, which is the main newspaper depicted in the Marvel Netflix universe.
On the mostly bare website (for now), you can see fake newspaper covers depicting large events in the lives of the four Defenders, and one key event from “Daredevil” Season 2. The cover, which features the headline “Midland Circle Rises to New Heights,” refers to the giant hole being dug in the middle of the city discovered by Daredevil and Elektra.
And if you’ve been paying attention, Midland Circle is where the Defenders are riding the elevator.
The website also confirms that the show will premiere on Aug. 18.
The Defenders will definitely be facing the Hand — a group of mystical assassins that have been living on the edges of the Netflix universe since “Daredevil” Season 1. And this clue possibly refers to how we’ll see a resolution to that plot line with the giant hole. So yes, it is a literal plot hole.
According to the scant details released by Netflix, the four heroes will separately travel to Midland Circle, which is where they’ll meet. The hole is never fully explained, but the NY Bulletin website on the Midland Circle cover refers to a scientist who’s trying to find a lost city. Maybe that’s what the Hand was trying to dig to?
“The Defenders” will see the culmination of the Netflix Marvel universe, similar to how “The Avengers” was to the movie-verse. Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jones, Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and Danny Rand (Finn Jones) will get together to fight the Hand, along with an unnamed villain played by Sigourney Weaver.
Watch the teaser above.