THE PUNISHER Showrunner Explains Why None of the Defenders Will Appear in The Series

The Punisher is Marvel's next big Netflix flagship series, and while everyone knows that they exist in the same universe, none of the big four Defenders will be making an appearance in the series. Marvel has made sure that they don't get tied together, but why?

Steve Lightfoot, who is the showrunner on the show, recently told Syfy Wire the reason for the separation, and it makes a little sense:

"I think it's something that you need to talk to someone in Marvel about that because when I came in to take the show on, it was always very clear to me that they wanted it to sort of tell its own story and run on its own track and not really intersect with what was happening in The Defenders. That was part of the brief.

"I guess I could speculate on the reasons for that, but I think from what I understand the original concept for the four characters that became The Defenders was always the plan and the Punisher spun out of that. But very much certainly when I came in the brief was always that it was to be its own show and its own thing separate from that."

So, from the sounds of it, they've had some big Defenders plans from the beginning and even though people want Punisher, he was never part of the plan. This almost feels like when Daredevil wasn't going to have any crossover with the Avengers movies, but it's still a "connected universe". I know I'm complaining a lot, but The Punisher played such an interesting role in Daredevil, that I guess I'd love to see him interact with the other Defenders as well. 

Maybe Punisher could start his own crew-niverse. I mean, we already have the Defenders being street heroes, who's to say we can't see Punisher put together some Thunderbolts. He won't have to deal with the Defenders, maybe he gets a crew of people who are the worst, like Elektra, Blade, and Ghostrider. Each of them get their own Netflix series and they all team up for Thunderbolts series. Do it! 

It seems Marvel has a lot of plans for the Defenders. I can't wait to see what happens next. I just hope they take two steps forward without the step back.