How The Defenders Uses Color to Define Its Characters

Paint by heroes.

By Tom Marks

Warning: Contains spoilers for all of Marvel's The Defenders. Do not read unless you've seen it or don't mind.

Marvel’s The Defenders released this past weekend, and it’s got some problems. I came away from the show with mixed opinions, but one of the things that really impressed me was its use of lighting and color to distinguish each character.

For the first half of the series has nearly all of Daredevil’s scenes tinted red, Jessica Jones in blue, Luke Cage in yellow, Iron Fist in a dark and brooding green, and Sigourney Weaver’s Alexandra with a crisp white.

Here are some of my favorite shots from The Defenders that take advantage of the effect:

Those color motifs are a lot less present after episode 4. This might be because The Defenders are fighting as a team from that point on, but the effect was so cool that I found myself seriously missing its prevalence.

You can find our reviews for each episode of The Defenders right here.

Tom Marks is an Associate Editor focusing on PC gaming at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

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