IRON FIST
SEASON 1

THE LAST OF THE FOUR

FROM THE NETFLIX DEAL TO A SHOWRUNNER AND A LEAD

Iron Fist was one of the four characters in the Netflix deal Disney announced on 7 November 2013, alongside Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. By the time his series arrived, the other three had all aired. Scott Buck was hired as showrunner in December 2015.

Marvel and Netflix confirmed Finn Jones as Danny Rand on 17 March 2016. Buck described the character as “a billionaire New York Buddhist monk martial arts superhero” still working out what that means. Marvel Television’s Jeph Loeb said that with Jones cast, the principal cast for The Defenders was complete.

A HEIR WHO CANNOT PROVE WHO HE IS

DANNY RAND RETURNS, AND LOEB CALLS IT A HARD LOOK AT THE ONE PERCENT

Marvel’s announcement described Danny as a man who returns to New York City after being missing for years. At New York Comic Con in October 2016, Loeb called the show “a very hard look at the One Percent” and framed it as a mystery about identity:

“How do you go about proving who you are when no one knows, including yourself, what’s happened to you?”

Jeph Loeb, on Iron Fist, at New York Comic Con, October 2016

A DEBATE BEFORE PREMIERE

WHAT WAS SAID ABOUT THE CASTING OF A WHITE LEAD

The casting drew a bit of social outcry at the time, with critics objecting that a white British actor was playing a white American character whose story arguably draws on Asian culture and history. At New York Comic Con in October 2016, BuzzFeed asked Loeb whether the production had considered an actor of Asian descent. He answered that “the importance of Danny as an outsider” is a theme running through the whole show. Buck did not respond to BuzzFeed’s request for comment.

Jones told interviewers that people should wait and watch the show before passing judgment, and that the comics were written in the 1970s, a very different world to 2016. Polygon’s Susana Polo, reviewing the first six episodes, wrote that the series’ problems with its portrayal of Asian cultures and Asian-Americans run through every episode.

WING CHUN, WU-TANG AND A HIP-HOP PLAYLIST

HOW THE FIGHTS AND THE SOUNDTRACK WERE BUILT

Fight and stunt coordinator Brett Chan said the team drew on Wing Chun and on the animal styles of kung fu, with Jones’s Iron Fist using a lot of Dragon, Crane and Tiger. He said Jessica Henwick, who plays Colleen Wing, trained six hours a day. Jones said in April 2016 that his routine combined “kung fu and wushu mixed with a bit of tai chi,” weight training and meditation.

Jones revealed in January 2017 that RZA directed the sixth episode, and that he had made a playlist of 1990s hip-hop for Danny that the series draws on. The season was shot in New York City from April to October 2016, with Trevor Morris scoring it without an orchestra.

THE REWATCH

A 20% CRITICS SCORE, A RENEWAL AND A NEW SHOWRUNNER

Netflix released all 13 episodes on 17 March 2017. Critics had seen only the first six, and the early verdicts were harsh. The Hollywood Reporter’s Daniel Fienberg said it “feels like a step backward on every level,” and Variety’s Maureen Ryan called it “the most frustrating and ferociously boring example of Netflix Drift in some time.” CBR’s review was mixed, calling the pace glacial but praising Henwick, who it said “owns every scene she appears in.”

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 20% critics’ score from 86 reviews and a 71% audience score, and its consensus says that despite some promising moments the show is weighed down by an absence of momentum and originality. Metacritic gives the season 37 from 21 critics. Netflix does not publish viewing figures. Third-party estimates rated the launch as heavily watched but reported a sharp fall in demand within a week.

Loeb announced a second season at San Diego Comic-Con on 22 July 2017, and Raven Metzner was named to replace Buck as showrunner, with Buck moving to Inhumans. Season 2 followed in 2018.

In the Marvel Marathon it sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide between Legion Season 1 and The Defenders, and in the MCU timeline guide between Luke Cage Season 1 and The Defenders.