Check out the NYC sites featured in Netflix’s ‘Defenders’
The working title was fittingly “Group Therapy.”
Perhaps in a bid to throw rabid superhero fans off the trail, signs posted on streets denoting work on Marvel’s latest series, “The Defenders,” carried the fake moniker.
The series, which was shot last winter and debuted Friday on Netflix, unites all of the heroes from the platform’s existing Marvel shows into one superteam. And in true Marvel fashion, the teammates do not always get along, occasionally bickering like Washington politicians — hence the winking “Group Therapy” title.
Through the eight episodes, Luke Cage (Mike Colter), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Iron Fist (Finn Jones) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) do cooperate long enough to take on a villainous group menacing New York City: the mystical ninja order known as the Hand, led by Sigourney Weaver.
As with previous Marvel shows, New York is front and center. Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel television, has said that the city is so important to the atmosphere of the shows, it’s like the “fifth Defender.”
In a bid for authenticity, “The Defenders” — as with the Marvel solo-character series that preceded it — was filmed all around New York. Some interiors were shot at Brooklyn’s Broadway Stages, but an estimated 60 to 70 percent of the series was filmed at various locations throughout the five boroughs, says location manager Rafael Lima.
The Post spoke to Lima for his guide to the Defenders’ New York.
Royal Dragon Chinese Restaurant, 646 Lorimer St., Brooklyn
The “Defenders” crew built a restaurant in this old carwash.Paul MartinkaThe restaurant where the heroes spend a large portion of two episodes isn’t an actual restaurant at all. The problem Lima faced when choosing a location was that the scene ended with a huge battle, capped off by an SUV driving through the eatery.
“I realized I wasn’t going to find a cool landlord or restaurant owner to let us do something like that, so I had to think of real-life alternatives,” Lima says.
What he found was an old car wash in Williamsburg.
“I reached out to the owner and said, ‘Listen, this place is designed to have a car in it anyway. Maybe we could build a restaurant into it and do all the crazy stuff we wanted to,’” he says.
The production spent a month refurbishing the spot to look like a place that might serve decent pork fried rice.
“Who would have ever thought it would be a car wash that would satisfy the parameters?” Lima says.
The bad-guy HQ is really a luxury apartment building.Brian ZakThe Hand’s headquarters, 635 W. 42nd St.
The production originally set the evil group’s home base in another Midtown skyscraper, but then the building was covered in scaffolding, rendering the location useless. They set out to find an alternative. They landed on this luxury apartment building on the west side, with its gleaming, minimalist white lobby.
In the name of full disclosure, Lima had to tell the building’s manager that the location would be used as the headquarters for an evil organization.
“I also said, ‘Oh, and by the way, at the end of the series we’ll [simulate blowing] it up. Do you have an issue with that?’ ” Lima recalls. “He said, ‘As long as the money works, I don’t care what you do.’”
Paramount Theatre, 560 Bay St., Staten Island
The space was once a grand art-deco movie palace but has been shuttered for decades — making it the perfect spot for the Defenders to lie low while hiding out from their enemies.
The building’s owner plans to eventually restore the theater, but for now, it’s been used for several film and TV shoots, including Fox’s “Gotham.”
“We wanted it for its derelict qualities,” Lima says. “It looks like a good place to hide out.”
Before shooting commences in an abandoned building like this, Lima says safety checks must be made, including for asbestos, lead paint and mold.
Jazz at Lincoln Center, 10 Columbus Circle
AlamyThe unique venue was used for a scene in which Weaver’s character listens to a private music performance.
“It’s such a spectacular space,” Lima says. “It looks out on Central Park, and is unmistakably New York in an in-your-face way. When Jeph Leob says New York is meant to be a character in the show, we feel locations like that really bolster that.”
Rooftop views 187 Lafayette St.
“It wouldn’t be a Marvel show if there weren’t scenes on rooftops,” Lima says.
“Daredevil” fans might recognize this vantage point from the previous two seasons of that show. It returns in “The Defenders.”
“It’s right by the old police headquarters, and looking down, you see lower Manhattan; looking up, you see Midtown,” Lima says. “It’s a pretty dynamic view.”
Elektra’s grave Mount Zion Cemetery, Queens
Matt Murdock’s former flame and crime-fighting partner (played by Elodie Yung) was murdered by the Hand at the end of “Daredevil” Season 2, but her body was soon exhumed, and she was resurrected. Now, however, she works in the service of Sigourney Weaver and the Hand.
The production liked Mount Zion’s crowded look for the assassin’s not-so-final resting place.
“In the story, Matt and [martial arts mentor] Stick [played by Scott Glenn] wanted to honor her with a burial, but they wanted her grave to be anonymous,” Lima says. “The way Jewish cemeteries are, the graves are so close together. You would be hard-pressed to find the grave you’re looking for. That’s the quality we were looking for.”
Turkey’s Nest Tavern, 94 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn
The Williamsburg watering hole stands in for Josie’s, the bar where Matt Murdock has hung out in “Daredevil.” It makes a return appearance in “The Defenders.”
“Josie’s is meant to be a run-of-the-mill dive bar, and Turkey’s Nest fits that description more perfectly than almost any place I can imagine,” Lima says of the nearly 40-year-old spot.
Nelson & Murdock law office, 365 South Fourth St., Brooklyn
The heroes from the Defenders are supposed to be operating in Hell’s Kitchen, but like nearly every part of Manhattan, the neighborhood is too gentrified to convey the gritty, dangerous feel portrayed in the original comics.
The run-down law office Murdock shares with his partner, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), is actually in Williamsburg.
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