This Company Is At The Heart Of 'The Defenders' And Here's What It Means

With all four of our heroes from the Netflix MCU working on their own cases at the beginning of The Defenders, we started to wonder if they were ever going to come together. But it turned out all four were actually working on the same case, from completely different angles. All roads lead back to the same place: Midland Circle Financial. But is Midland Circle from the Marvel comics? Or is this a company just made up for Marvel's The Defenders?

The first time we saw the phrase "Midland Circle Financial" was actually in Daredevil Season 2. They were the construction company in Hell's Kitchen working on some of the new gentrification construction projects in the rehabilitated area where the "Incident" originally took place, and discovered to be controlled by the Hand.

The next time? It was part of the title of a viral video that was released back in April, announcing the release date for Marvel's The Defenders. All four of our heroes were seen in "found security footage" of "Elevator B" looking as if they'd just given a heck of a beat down to a bunch of bad guys.

Also interestingly, the voiceover in the elevator announcing they were headed down? It's Sigourney Weaver, who plays Alexandra Reid.

So Reid is part of Midland Financial, specifically the CEO. That explains why Danny Rand has a reason to face her, over a boardroom table. (Note he's in a suit.) As for how the other three got there, it's from tracking down their own leads, that just so conveniently happen to bring them all there at the same time.

Note that Matt is not in his armor either, both because she's still technically retired, and he was in lawyer mode until it became necessary to start fighting. (And yes, that is Jessica's scarf he's got as his disguise. She looks super thrilled about that.)

So what is Midland Financial? It doesn't exist in the Marvel comics database except for Daredevil Season 2, which means that yes, it was created specifically for the series. But what is the company doing, and how did it pull off that earthquake? And how frightened should West Side residents of New York City be of the gleaming new tower that overlooks the Clinton area?