Well, speaking of Iron Fist, we’ve got a showrunner and a synopsis:
“Returning to New York City after being missing for years, Daniel Rand fights against the criminal element corrupting New York City with his incredible kung-fu mastery and ability to summon the awesome power of the fiery Iron Fist.”
Cool, sounds good.
“Six Feet Under” and “Dexter” veteran Scott Buck will serve as showrunner on Netflix “Iron Fist”
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Full press release from Marvel:
“The Netflix Original Series “Marvel’s Iron Fist” has found its showrunner and Executive Producer in Scott Buck (“Dexter,” “Six Feet Under”)!
Buck previously served as Executive Producer and showrunner of “Dexter” for the series’ final four years. He has also written for “Six Feet Under” and “Rome,” among other series.
“Scott came in with a take on Iron Fist that quite simply knocked us off our feet,” said Executive Producer/Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb. “We always look for the most creative minds in the field to help us bring our heroes to life, and with Scott we’ve found someone that can deliver yet another great series in the ongoing story of The Defenders.”
“I’ve always been drawn to writing complex, intriguing characters, and that’s what most excites me about the opportunity to bring Danny Rand and “Iron Fist” to life with Marvel on Netflix,” said Buck.
Returning to New York City after being missing for years, Daniel Rand fights against the criminal element corrupting New York City with his incredible kung-fu mastery and ability to summon the awesome power of the fiery Iron Fist.
“Marvel’s Iron Fist” is the fourth series as part of an overall deal between Marvel Television and Netflix, which has already released the critically-acclaimed first seasons of “Marvel’s Daredevil” and “Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” with “Marvel’s Luke Cage” premiering in 2016. All four heroes will then unite in the mini-series event “Marvel’s The Defenders.””
I don’t know much about Iron Fist. What’s his hook other than he’s a white dude with martial arts? That’s it right? I seem to have the impression that he comes from a time when the whole martial arts thing was considered exotic and weird enough to warrant being a superhero on its own.
I don’t know his original story, but I’ve always suspected what you just said, that it was from back when “good at martial arts” qualified as a super power (and character development).
But I loved the 2006 “The Immortal Iron Fist” run started by Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker. The titular Iron Fist is Danny Rand who was orphaned in the mystical city of K’un-L’un when the rest of his family was killed in the expedition his father was leading to find the city. He was raised there, trained in martial arts, and became “The Iron Fist”, a title held by many over the years. He eventually returns to New York to take over his father’s company, so he’s sort of another billionaire Bruce Wayne/Oliver Queen type in some respects.
That particular run did a great job of telling a cool kung-fu fantasy story when demons from his past in K’un-L’un (literal and figurative, of course) catch up with him. Lots of cool supporting characters in the fantasy side of it, and plenty of mystical stuff that makes me most nervous about this ever working as a show both for budgetary and tone reasons. I never saw the Keanu Reaves 47 Ronin movie, but going purely from the aesthetic of the trailer, think that kind of stuff.
More relevant to his involvement here is that he’s best friends with Luke Cage, and they used to be the “Heroes for Hire”, mercenary superheros basically. His friendship with Luke Cage will almost certainly be the connective tissue on Netflix. I’ve never actually read any of the comics from that time period either, though Cage and Rand are always close friends in other stuff they show up in like Avengers comics.
The Daredevil run that started with Brian Michael Bendis (who also wrote ALIAS, the Jessica Jones comic) also incorporated Danny Rand, although I might be mixing things up with when Brubaker took over on that Daredevil run. Iron Fist’s appearance in that modern Daredevil story was sort of the jumping off point for the 2006 story mentioned above, and so this all makes sense in that regard. Bendis’s Daredevil and ALIAS felt of a piece, with Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Danny Rand crossing paths fairly often. Dr. Strange, the Punisher, and Spider-Man rounded out the other frequent guests in those comics, though at the time when Netflix first announced these four series the landscape was a little different regarding the other characters.
And I shouldn’t be too cynical yet. I mean, Dexter was an awful show by the end, so I don’t know what to think about Scott Buck as showrunner, but maybe he’ll be a better fit here.
And as for the character, they could still work him into a great show with only a little more mysticism than Daredevil hinted at; it won’t mean a failure if it doesn’t manage to go all out and include a tournament in K’un-L’un against the Immortal Weapons of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven. But man, I liked that comic, so I hope they can get there.
Yep, Dexter really sucked at the end, but part of the Problem was that they treated him like a superhero who could not fail. Perhaps that approach might pay more dividends in a show about an actual superhero?
I didn’t watch Dexter or Six Feet Under so I can’t draw any conclusions based on this dude’s appointment.
One of the best things Fraction did in that series Wholly is referencing is boiling him down to Kung Fu Billionaire. He’s also got a dragon punch he earned in by defeating a dragon in mystical K’un L’un so he’s more super than your average white karate dude.
Iron Fist is a bit problematic, because he does come from a tradition of “White dude does x better than the people who invented it”, and I remember as a kid, Iron Fist sorta didn’t fit his stories, they were all Kung-Fu Asian mystical stuff, but with a white dude where Shang Chi should be… Hopefully, the series avoids that “This really should be starring an asian actor” feeling.
Would it be such a terrible thing if they did cast a non-white actor in the role? I don’t know anything about Danny Rand except that he’s buddies with Luke Cage. Does Rand’s Anglo-Saxon (or German? Irish? Dutch? French? Scandinavian? Polish? Maltese? Italian? Magyar?) heritage have any particular bearing on his stories? Is he impressive because, like the Ralph Macchio or Jaden Smith that was to follow him, he trained in an exotic fighting art? Or was it important that he was white so that Marvel-reading cloistered kids would have a good role model of a black guy being friends with a white guy on an even level?
I loved the whole Heroes for Hire series when I was a kid. That’s why I was so excited for Netflix putting the band together, so to speak. But I thought I’d read recently that Netflix was having second thoughts about doing a whole series on Iron Fist? The article I remember seemed to indicate they were thinking of just making him a supporting character in the Luke Cage series.
There were rumors that Netflix/Marvel would replace Iron Fist with Punisher as their fourth standalone series. Actually putting out this press release and naming a show runner seems to put those to rest. As far as I can tell, the rumors were based on circumstance:
Daredevil was a big success, the Punisher will be in DD season 2, and the Punisher certainly has enough material to drive his own series if they ever did decide to pursue that, so offering him as an alternative had some logic to it.
Iron Fist, as we’ve been speculating about, has the most potential for supernatural/fantasy elements, making him in some ways a bigger risk and a trickier fit with the other Defenders.
There had been no other news at all on Iron Fist until today.
Maybe Marvel did consider axing the Iron Fist series at some point, but there’s no evidence of that, and I guess it doesn’t matter either way now.
Exactly right. He was one of many “exploitation” 70s characters, like Master of Shang-chi and Luke Cage. Obviously characters with histories that long have evolved though, and unlike Shang-chi he actually has superpowers.
Very disappointed to hear about the showrunner pick. Dexter varied in quality throughout its run, but it only actually got awful when this showrunner took over - I can’t think of an example where a showrunner ruined a show so badly. Since he’s starting fresh here maybe that’ll be less of an issue, but that’s the only silver lining I can concoct. This is clearly terrible news.
His name is based upon his superpower, so it has to be in. Basically he can just “power up” his fist - evidenced by it being surrounded by a glowing aura - which allows him to basically punch through anything. It’s not something he can do constantly - it’s essentially just a finishing move - so it’ll be easy to incorporate.
What about the demons and dragon fighting and all the mystical stuff from his past? It would be odd if he comes from a super-magical origin, then just fights mundane bad guys in NY.
Who is his main enemy? Another martial artist, like a spurned monk or something?
Edit: I know I should just go look this stuff up, but I’ve found that a lot of Wiki entries for lesser-known comic heroes can get pretty obtuse.
