Blunt, alcoholic private investigator Jessica Jones is our de facto entry as an audience into the Defenders, showrunner Marco Ramirez reveals to the Los Angeles Times‘ Hero Complex.

Like Wolverine in the original X-Men film, Dr. John Watson in any Sherlock Holmes story or adaptation, or even Harry Potter in his eponymous films, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica is the audience surrogate for this banding together of the four street level heroes of the MCU’s New York City boroughs. She’ll offer the perspective — and likely our voice — as the miniseries tries to mix the related but disparate realities of the Feisty Four.

“Text messaging back and forth with Krysten Ritter, crafting cool one-liner moments for JJ, was one of the highlights of the show,” [Ramirez] said. “It was as exciting as doing big fight scenes. ‘How will JJ make fun of everyone else in the room?’ was a primary focus at all times,” he says. “In some ways she gets to be our Han Solo, the regular grounded person’s way into this world. I think one of the great joys of the show is watching them interact.”

Speaking of fight scenes, Rammirez discusses how they broke down the choreography of each fight scene to really highlight the differences of each character for a visual language that helps to define them individually within the group. He describes Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil as a trained boxer picking his hits to make them count and last; Mike Colter’s Luke Cage as running defense and using his body to protect those around him; Finn Jones’ Danny Rand/Iron Fist as the hothead who is eager to fight and often gets himself in overwhelming situations; and Ritter’s Jessica as the one who doesn’t really want to be there but reluctantly kicks ass when needed.

Not to be outdone, Ramirez hints that Sigourney Weaver, who will play series baddie Alexandra, gets to flex her own action star muscles. Still no reveal on just who she is, as well as any more insight into a likely connection with the Hand, the mystical group featured so heavily in Daredevil and Iron Fist.

In addition to mixing characters and styles, it sounds like tones and other aspects of each series, like the exceptional music choices from Luke Cage, will be blended in the palette to truly feeling like the coming together of all four.

Marvel’s The Defenders premieres all eight episodes on Netflix on August 18th.