With filming set to begin soon on “Daredevil: Born Again,” fans of the Netflix/Marvel ‘Defenders’ universe are rejoicing. The best character from those failed series is getting new life in the MCU, and already, in his brief appearances in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “She-Hulk,” Charlie Cox is killing it and taking full advantage of his new lease on life. But in all the discussions about which “Defenders”-era characters should return, you’re definitely not hearing many fans clamoring for an “Iron Fist” revival. And for good reason. The show is easily the weakest of the Netflix series, and many put the blame on Finn Jones, the lead actor of the show, as he didn’t really feel like the right person to play Danny Rand, the kung-fu badass with a supernatural punch. Well, in a recent interview with Jones about the failure of “Iron Fist,” the actor thinks he knows the real reason the show failed—scheduling conflicts.
Speaking to the Geekscape podcast, Finn Jones talked about the demise of “Iron Fist” and his fairly short tenure as Danny Rand in the Netflix/Marvel universe. He’s fairly open to admitting the first season of the series didn’t do well, but the actor doesn’t point the blame on writing, direction, or even his own (lackluster) performance. Instead, he blames the scheduling.
“I think, really, the first season, there was a lot of creative challenges, and it didn’t live up to the expectations, and I think that came down to…really, it came down to scheduling conflicts,” said Jones. “That season of television was rushed because we had ‘The Defenders’ that we had to film straight afterwards. We had to film ‘The Defenders,’ we had all those other actors locked into that schedule, so we had to film those 13 episodes of television in that set time, and unfortunately, we just didn’t have the time to do what was expected and what was desired, which was a kick-ass, amazing kung fu show and martial arts show. And the reason that show failed was because of the time constraints, because of bad scheduling.”
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As for the reason Season 2 of the series (yes, it was actually picked up for a second season) didn’t perform well, it also came down to scheduling. But more so, the proximity of the release of Season 2 and the announcement that Netflix and Disney were dissolving their relationship and the Mouse House was bringing back all of its characters for potential relaunches in the MCU.
“Season 2, we really understood what the flaws were, and we worked hard to course-correct the show. And in my opinion, we did,” he added. “We did a fantastic job bringing that show back up to code. Unfortunately, just a month after that show had been premiered, all of the shows got deleted because Disney wanted to create their own series, they wanted to do their own thing on their own platform, which is understandable. But it was a shame that it kind of, just when we were out of the gate, ready to kind of go running, we were just, like, yanked.”
For as much as I can talk ill of “Iron Fist,” there are some decent aspects of the series. Jones is correct in suggesting Season 2 was better than Season 1. However, both seasons definitely suffer from the same things that plagued all of the Netflix/Marvel shows— the length of seasons. 13 episodes was just too much for the stories they planned on telling. As for “Iron Fist,” In particular,” Jones has to take at least some of the blame. His performance in Season 1 was not strong and really turned people off of the series. You can’t expect fans to give Season 2 a chance if Season 1 is not great.
That said, if Marvel Studios does want to include some “Iron Fist” characters in the MCU, Colleen Wing (played by Jessica Henwick) is a good place to start. As for the rest? Meh. Let them die.
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