claire temple

Well, in a lot of ways ‘The Punisher’ series is going to be somewhat similar to the title character. Neither one of them is very good with rules or conformity, which is why ‘The Punisher’ series will be the first Marvel/Netflix show spun-off (aka not planned) from the main shows, it will be the first time Netflix has done a 3rd series/season of a Marvel show in one year (usually we just get 2 seasons, one in the spring and one in the fall), and now, sadly, we know it will be the first Marvel/ Netflix show not to feature the main connecting thread that has linked all of the other Marvel/ Netflix shows, Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple.

The news came out recently when Dawson was asked by Collider about being the Nick Fury of the Marvel/Netflix MCU and Dawson answered:

“I love it! It’s amazing, seeing people’s reactions online. I remember when I first took on this character, I was like, “I don’t know, I really wanted to have a radioactive spider situation. I’m just a nurse? Really?! Okay.” Everybody loves their Daredevil and Luke Cage, but it’s really fun seeing people go, “Claire Temple is my favorite character ‘cause she’s a real person and she’s got real skills, and if it wasn’t for her, they’d all have been dead, a long time ago.” I keep thinking my character should walk on set and just go, “You’re welcome!” Every time they do something amazing, she should go, “And you’re welcome, ‘cause you wouldn’t have done that, had I not fixed you.” I think it’s really great. It’s grounding to remind people that we all have the opportunity and skills to be heroes or heroines in our real life, and it’s not just these heroes that have special powers that we get to fantasize about.”

Following that question, Dawson was next asked why Claire never bothered to call up Matt Murdock to join the fight against the Hand during ‘Iron Fist:’

“I know! We always allude to it that I’ve got this friend, but he gets to have time off. He was working on The Defenders, and he’s about to start up Daredevil again. At the end of the day, it’s really hard to get all of those casts together. For The Defenders, it was difficult to get everybody together. People are busy! There are so many times where I really want it to happen. I really wanted to do a cameo on The Punisher, but it doesn’t always work that way.”

Of course, her casual attitude might be hiding the fact that something might happen to her character during ‘The Defenders,’ which is why she does not appear in ‘The Punisher,’ the series that will follow ‘The Defenders,’ which is a sad/scary thought. After all, in the big screen MCU it was the “death” of Phil Coulson, who could also be argued to be another connecting figure between all the MCU movies originally, that spurred the team to come together to save New York. Could Netflix be doing something similar? Could Claire tragically be killed, thus spurring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist to work together? Or could she be captured/ injured and they have to work together to “defend” her? (hence the name ‘Defenders?’)

Feel free to share your theories or opinions on the matter in the comments below!