The first season of Netflix‘s Iron Fist received a mixed reaction, debuting at a time when it had a lot of pressure to live up to other Marvel collaborations (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage) and also an awareness of under-representation for Asian faces and culture in key cinematic and televisual roles. Here, some argued, was a key entry in the superhero pantheon and one that was to have a strong martial-arts theme…. and its central character was… a white man. The character was true, in many ways, to the Danny Rand / Iron Fist of the comics, but there was a solid argument being made that other characters could have been seen as better, more diverse candidates ahead of him. It also didn’t help that Finn Jones though a competent actor was not a particularly strong martial-artist, having to learn his moves for the show rather than already being good. Good choreography helped at the start, but editing heped as well.
The result was a learning curve and by the end of the first-run, some of the skeptical parts of the audience had been won over, others remained unconvinced. Unlike the previous Marvel/Netflix series, Iron Fist felt less organically set in a firm foundation, but like the kind of show that was trying hard and wanted to do better. Today Netflix released the trailer for the second season of Iron Fist and it certainly suggests that the martial-arts component will be front and centre as will a variation of the comics’ costume. Finn Jones returns, as do Jessica Henwick (as Colleen Wing), Sacha Dhawan as Davos and Simone Missick reprising her Luke Cage-supporting role of Misty Knight. At this point, it does not seem that Mike Colter will be appearing as Luke Cage. The series takes place post-Defenders mini-series, but it is also expected not to reference some of the major developments of the cinematic arm of the Marvel Universe.
The second run of Iron Fist will run to thirteen episodes and launches on 7th September in all Netflix territories…
