San Diego Comic-Con is always a good time, but this year has really kicked the excitement level up a notch at the annual convention. Marvel's panel today continued the tradition by containing quite a few surprises. For one, in addition to a full-length Defenders trailer, attendees were treated to a surprise screening of the very first episode of The Defenders, which got an enthusiastic response from the crowd. The other surprise came before the The Defenders even got to the stage when Marvel unveiled the first Punisher footage. Marvel has become the master of surprise over the past few weeks, much to the delight of fans.

Netflix and Marvel brought the entire cast of The Defenders to the San Diego Comic-Con. Marvel Television's Jeph Loeb was on hand to moderate the panel and he brought the stars of The Defenders to the stage including Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Mike Colter (Luke Cage), Finn Jones (Iron Fist), Elodie Yung (Elektra), Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page) and Sigourney Weaver as Alexandra. Yung said that Elektra comes back in The Defenders not knowing who she is. She has been trained by Weaver's Alexandra character to be a living weapon. There's also a question as to how much of Elektra's personality actually remains within her after Alexandra's training.

Jeph Loeb heaped praise on Weaver, saying that "she elevates the whole series." It was revealed that Weaver first met the cast at the New York Comic-Con last fall. As it turns out, she was already a huge fan of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Weaver said that New York City is included as one of the five Defenders. Weaver is a New Yorker herself and really thinks that the city is an important character on the show. Krysten Ritter said that Jessica doesn't want help from anyone (much like the rest of the team), but that she has a "gooey inside" and ultimately wants to help people.

Marvel's The Defenders follows Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Iron Fist, aka Danny Rand (Finn Jones), a quartet of singular heroes with one common goal - to save New York City. This is the story of four solitary figures, burdened with their own personal challenges, who reluctantly realize they just might be stronger when teamed together.

The series is executive produced by showrunner Marco Ramirez (Daredevil Season 2 , Fear the Walking Dead), Douglas Petrie (Daredevil, American Horror Story), Joseph Loeb (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist), and Jim Chory (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist) . The action-filled drama brings the four members of the street-level hero team known as The Defenders to the screen. Marvel's The Defenders is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios for Netflix. All 8 original episodes of Marvel's The Defenders will premiere exclusively on August 18th , 2017 on Netflix. Check out video and pictures from the Marvel Television panel below.