new york comic con 2016

Sigourney Weaver Is Your Defenders Villain

Evil! Photo: Mike Coppola/FilmMagic

A comic con just isn’t a comic con without an eardrum-bursting Marvel panel, right? The megabrand’s Netflix operation had the prime-time slot at New York Comic Con’s main stage tonight, and although the primary goal was to show off the cast and creator of March’s Marvel-Netflix collaboration, Marvel’s Iron Fist, there were a few surprises at the tail end of the night. The first was the debut of a new trailer for Iron Fist. After that, there was the arrival of the Punisher himself, Jon Bernthal, along with the announcement that production on his solo series has already begun, meaning it’ll be the next to air after next year’s Marvel’s the Defenders. The next was the arrival of the titular Defenders, Charlie Cox (horny ol’ Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (*Kilgrave voice* Jessicaaaaaaahhh!), Mike Colter (the tallest of the bunch), and Finn Jones (he was already onstage, so that wasn’t a surprise). But the biggest piece of insanity was Marvel TV chief Jeph Loeb’s end-of-panel announcement that the Defenders villain will be played by none other than Sigourney Weaver. There was no word on who her character is (a resurgent Zuul, mayhap?). She strode onto the stage and boy, howdy, people completely lost it. They started chanting, “Ho-ly shit! Ho-ly shit!” while Weaver beamed and waved. Neither she nor any of the other Defenders spoke, but even if they had, no one would have been able to hear them.