Drew Goddard may not have been as involved with Marvel’s Daredevil as originally intended, but the co-writer and director of The Cabin in the Woods and Academy Award nominated writer of The Martian has returned to the Marvel/Netflix fold for The Defenders series.

Goddard is listed as an executive producer on the series, which will team Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and when I spoke to him this past week about the new NBC comedy series, The Good Place (Goddard directed the pilot), he told me his Defenders title isn’t just ceremonial and he is involved as much as he can be, while juggling other projects.“I was there this morning,” Goddard said, referring to the Defenders writers room. “I’ll be there tomorrow. It’s been fun. [The Defenders showrunners] Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez are both good friends of mine. I enjoy it. Much like this [The Good Place], I like the show. I like the people." Goddard, whose credits also include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, Lost, and Cloverfield, said with a laugh, "My career is a story of going to hang out with my friends and make cool stuff.”Goddard was originally going to be the showrunner on Daredevil, but had to step away due to his commitment to direct Sony’s Sinister Six movie at the time, before that project was shelved when Sony changed up their Spider-Man movie plans (leading to his re-introduction in Civil War and integration into the MCU) - though Goddard's scripts for the first two Daredevil episodes were still used.When it came to getting to work on a big team-up project with all the Marvel heroes in The Defenders, Goddard said, “We still have those moments where Doug or Jeph [Loeb] or somebody will just say, ‘I can’t believe we’re talking about Luke Cage and Iron Fist and Daredevil and Jessica in the same show.’ That seems like a pipe dream, ten years ago, the idea that we can have shows cross like that. That many shows, crossed, I don’t remember that happening in a way that you can fit it into a plan. It’s been really fun. I don’t know that it would have worked without Netflix’s support of that vision. It’s really fun to see it all come together.”While they all center on street level heroes, each of the Marvel/Netflix shows have worked to establish their own tone and I asked Goddard if the goal was to do the same with The Defenders, even as it honored what had been established for each individual character.Replied Goddard, “Yeah. I’m a comic guy, so I always like the idea that you have everyone’s individual run. You have the Daredevil comic; the Alias comic, the Jessica Jones comic… But then you have a summer arc, a team up, and that’s it’s own thing also. What’s been really fun is to see each show take on its own personality. Luke and Iron Fist haven’t launched yet but they’re very different. They’re not the same as Daredevil. They’re not the same as Jessica Jones. What’s really fun about it is taking all four different genres and putting them together sort of inherently creates its own genre.”Marvel’s Luke Cage debuts September 30th on Netflix, followed by Iron First and then The Defenders, both sometime in 2017.

Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman