The casting of the sci-fi and action legend was announced at New York City Comic Con on Saturday.
Ever since Marvel’s The Defenders was announced, people have been wondering what villain would be dangerous enough to require the combined might of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist to defeat. Well, we still don’t know who the villain will be, but we know who will be playing her: Sigourney Weaver.
Weaver rose the fame as the star of the sci-fi/horror classic Alien, and followed it up with roles in genre films Ghostbusters, Galaxy Quest and Avatar. Marvel Television Head Jeff Loeb introduced Weaver as The Defenders villain during a panel which showed all four heroes in the same place for the first time.
So who will Weaver be portraying? Marvel won’t say, but we have a few guesses.
The Beast
One thing we do know is that the villain will likely be associated with the mystical ninja cult known as the “The Hand.” The Hand worships a demon named”The Beast” that they are constantly trying to resurrect/summon to wage war on the Earth. They came closest to succeeding when they performed a ceremony to allow the demon to possess Daredevil during the “Shadowlands” storyline. The Beast was only defeated when — I am not making this up — Iron Fist magically kung-fu punched the demon out of the man without fear.
While The Beast has traditionally portrayed as male, it’s a demon and can likely appear as anything or anyone it wants.
Mephisto/Blackheart
Mephisto is one of Marvel’s several stand-ins for the Devil, and was rumored early on to be the antagonist for Marvel’s street-level heroes. As with the beast, he is traditionally portrayed as male, but there is absolutely no reason he couldn’t be cast as female, or at least appear as one if it suits his whim.
A variation on this would be to cast her as Blackheart, Mephisto’s offspring. Blackheart’s very first mission on Earth was to corrupt the souls of Daredevil and Spider-Man. He is also a consistent enemy of Ghost Rider, who recently popped up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. With Loeb hinting at a crossover between AoS and the Netflix hero universe, a villain like Blackheart could easily hop from one show to the next.
An Executive at IGH
IGH is a paramilitary corporation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that makes “Combat Enhancers,” dangerous drugs that boost the physical abilities of its users to superhuman levels. Hero Jessica Jones got her powers after an accident with a truck carrying chemicals from IGH which killed the rest of her family, while the unstable, pill-popping Will Simpson (a.k.a.”Nuke”) was a product of the company’s covert super soldier program.
IGH could easily be the company that experimented on Luke Cage or even that funded the research that created the mind-warping Killgrave, tying multiple storylines together.
Viper
Viper (also known as Madam Hydra) is a character that has already appeared on screen once, in 20th Century Fox’s The Wolverine. But like Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, Viper has plenty of ties to the Avengers and other MCU characters.
Viper is one of the most feared terrorists in the world. She has ties to both Hydra and The Hand, and she entered a pact with the Elder God Chthon, to greatly slow her aging process — which has allowed her to live for several lifetimes while maintaining a youthful appearance.
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