​Avengers: Infinity War might have brought all of the MCU finally together, but the film wasn't still without its exclusions. Characters like Captain America, Black Widow, and Black Panther got significantly less air time than other heroes, Hawkeye and Ant-Man were never on-screen, and the movie wasn't able to incorporate Marvel's Netflix heroes or ABC's Agents of SHIELD.

Speaking with ​Collider on ​a variety of subjects including who is to blame for the heroes' defeat, the writers of Infinity War also answered the question of why The Defenders didn't make a cameo in Infinity War, this time by addressing all of the new elements that come with adding a character from another series.





"We talk about that all the time," stated writer Stephen McFeely. " In a movie this big, we certainly had the conversation, 'Should we put Luke Cage in this? Here we are in New York...' That kind of stuff."

It’s all been leading to this. Go on a journey through 10 years of Marvel Studios on the road to @Avengers: #InfinityWar. Now playing in theaters: https://t.co/xQsJemiGws (1/4) pic.twitter.com/UGtoc5nOp2 — Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) May 10, 2018

With a big battle of Infinity War taking place in New York, it does seem odd that four of Marvel's NYC heroes don't make an appearance, but as far as the MCU films are concerned on the big screen, they've never interacted with The Avengers before.





"I t would be just a glorified cameo at this point," McFeely explained. " We're trying to honor the MCU movies and if we then further tell the audience, 'Oh, you should also have a good knowledge from this streaming service over here that you may or may not be subscribing to.' That's really asking a lot. We're already asking a lot."

You want to test me? You know where to find me. pic.twitter.com/UjdXgASmiM — Luke Cage (@LukeCage) May 7, 2018

Co-writer Christopher Markus added that with Luke Cage's second season coming soon and a third season for Daredevil in the works, it would be odd to include them in a film with major ramifications for the MCU just to send them back home to their own stories. "We couldn't bring in that many people and not blip a bunch of them just an odds thing. You know?," Markus joked, "Next year, Daredevil starring Rosario Dawson!"

Back in action. Marvel's The Defenders is now streaming, only on Netflix. #DEFEND https://t.co/YW9wu2R2ea — Daredevil (@Daredevil) August 18, 2017

With the ending of Infinity War deleting half of our heroes, if all four Netflix heroes survived, they would have to deal with the effects of Thanos' victory, if not set in the past, and that's a lot to tack onto their current progression on Netflix.





Just like premiering Captain Marvel in her own movie before adding her to Avengers 4, having an initial solo outing is important to the model of Marvel (see: Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, as well). It's always a conversation as to whether the Defenders could be added into the MCU, but it doesn't come without it's own set of problems.

Avengers: Infinity War is currently in theaters, with Avengers 4 set to premiere May 3rd, 2019. The next in line for Netflix's line of Marvel heroes is Luke Cage, when Season 2 airs on June 22nd and Cloak & Dagger on Freeform on June 7th.