Very minor spoilers for Luke Cage, and somewhat major spoilers for Daredevil S2.

So we finally have a trailer of at least a little bit of substance for Iron Fist. In addition to the teaser that was released several months ago, and the date announcement last week (March 17, 2017). So far, some interesting scenes. As many people expected, it looks as if Madame Gao (Daredevil) will be making an appearance in at least some capacity, and it's been speculated elsewhere that she may end up being one of the main villains for Iron Fist. We got a look at Colleen Wing, and from one of the last scenes in Luke Cage we have confirmation that we'll be seeing Claire Temple and her meet up, likely some time near the beginning of the series.

We also got a couple frames of what the fight choreography is going to look like, and I have to say, it seems like they may have nailed it. Iron Fist is arguably the most talented hand to hand to combatant in the comics, eclipsing Daredevil, and it seems like they may well be going that direction. It's also been confirmed that the lawyer from Jessica Jones, Jeri Hogarth, will be the one representing Danny Rand as he attempts to reclaim his fortune, after having been legally dead for possibly up to several decades. The possibility, however slight, of Jessica Jones appearing because of this would also be intriguing, although if they stick with their modus operandi so far, we won't get much more than a, "Hey, I know this girl..." We've also got our first look at the CGI for the iron fist, and the burn mark on his chest.

Thoughts? Given how well, I think, they pulled off some of the more, eh, comic booky scenes from Luke Cage, and how generally spectacular the fight choreography has been for Daredevil, I have pretty high hopes for at least the action scenes.

Edit: This would probably be more appropriate for a Defenders thread, but since we don't have much substance for it yet, all four of the Defenders actors came out and "crashed" the Iron Fist panel at NYCC. They also announced who would be playing the main villain in the Defenders series, Sigourney Weaver. Pretty suprising to me, to be honest, I was kinda expecting them to reuse one of the villains already introduced, or maybe resurrected Elektra. It's a pleasant suprise, mind you. Here's some speculation on who she might be playing. Edited edit: Also, could anyone tell what Finn and Colter were chanting at the end of that?

 

Don't know an awful lot about the character beyond the basics of rich badass kung-fu master - although I'm hoping they stick with the version of his origin story that features his parents being eaten by wolves, because that's just hilarious.

Looking forward to it though. The trailer looked pretty cool, the prospect of Daredevil-esque action scenes but with super-strength is awesome, and they've got three of the more intriguing recurring characters coming back (Hogarth, Gao and Claire), so there's a solid base to build on at least.

I'll be interested to see whether they tackle the casting controversy - it was fairly lowkey as these things go, but there was a certain amount of outrage over the fact that they'd kept Rand as a white guy 'appropriating' the various elements of his character, rather than race-lifting him; it seemed a bit overblown to me, but equally it's the kind of thing they've addressed in Luke Cage and Jessica Jones.

 

I always thought Iron Fist was kind of corny (I mean, that costume is just terrible -- at least it doesn't look like they're using it), so I was never into him that much. Maybe I'll watch it once I get into the other Marvel Netflix shows, whenever that will be.

1) Maybe I'm not brushed up on my PC bullshit, but isn't it also racist to say that just because a guy is a martial artist means he has to be Asian?

2) Chuck Norris.

That said, the guy playing him does kind of look like a dweeb anyway.

 

That being the almost immediate response to it all, yes. Like I say, I thought it was a bit overblown, but actually using it in the show itself is the sort of thing that would make it stand it from other superhero shows, for better or worse.

 

Again, minor Luke Cage spoilers.

I can't say I know much about the character, either, except for what I've read on the various comic book sites, but I'd bet it's the plane crash that kills his parents . (Edit: And I apparently have short term memory loss, since his mother is pretty clearly demonstrated being alive within an apparently crashed plane. So disregard that.) And while them covering the casting controversy cultural appropriation business might happen, I'd bet pretty good money they won't in any large form, since, according to the directors, they picked Finn Jones because of the quality of his acting above anything else (edit: at least, I thought they'd confirmed this, I can't find a link for it anymore, so maybe not).

And on further thought, I'm almost dead certain we won't see Jessica Jones, but you know who I'd bet pretty good money we will see? Even if it's just a brief cameo? Foggy. "And given your unique background, I'll be sending one of my associates over who specializes in these types of cases." It seems exactly like the thing they'd throw in there, that most people might not think of at first, and would catch a fair few off guard. Like Cottonmouth's lawyer, or the ADA showing up in Luke Cage.

Ninja'd edit:

It's been confirmed, at least by Charlie Cox, that only him and Iron Fist will be in costume during the Defenders, so we'll likely see some version of it towards the end of the first season, a la Daredevil. And yeah, the cultural appropriation thing was a bit overblown, but more people seemed to be getting mad over the fact that Danny Rand was asian/white in the comics, and the directors didn't take the opportunity to cast an asian actor as a result.

 

Might be better for the first Asian lead in a superhero show/movie to not be a kung-fu master, no?

Could be my white privilege speaking though. Apologies.

 

The reason people think that Rand should be asian isn't just that he's a martial arts master. It's that basically every part of his mythos is completely saturated with Far East tropes, especially the Mysterious Orient, borderline Yellow Peril stuff.

On the other hand, he's not quite a mighty whitey. He's probably the best martial artist superhero, but he's not the best period. He's a chosen champion of a mystical city, but there are actually a bunch of those and he's still not the best or most powerful. He's white, sure, but his ties to white American culture are sort of tenuous and ancestral (sometimes).

A lot of people look at the tropes used in Iron Fist stories, and the setpieces and the trappings and conclude that the character would work just as well if not better as Asian, as well as being a perfect opportunity to provide something that Marvel has yet failed to offer up: a positive asian lead character. They often fail to mention that having the only Asian guy as the mystical master of martial arts wouldn't be removing stereotypes so much as laterally shifting into an entirely different set of stereotypes.

It's a tricky issue, even if you think that the entire concept of cultural appropriation is utter bullshit.

 

Just randomly looked up the actor and one of the first things that came up was a short video posted today, where among other things, he mentioned a plane crash when the character was ten years old and lost his parents.

 

Alright, so apparently we now have confirmation that the big social theme of this show is going to be "the one percent of the one percent," and how they affect our daily lives. I have to admit, if they hadn't already done a pretty good job with the social themes of the last three shows, I might be nervous. But mostly, I'm excited.

 

I do not know much about cannon but the trailers look good. I hope it is at the level of daredevil season 1

 

You have to admit this makes it seem different then it is. So, yeah just changing the actor wouldn't remove stereotypes but you have to admit if Netflix Marvel is going out of their way to do cultural shows then ignoring some of the oldest and largest cultures is facepalm worthy.

I'm looking forward to this since both Luke Cage and Jessica Jones an Daredevil too I guess were all great. That they're incorporating more characters from all of the shows is going to be interesting. That's really common now, huh doing crossovers in movies, marvel universe, dc, shows, supergirl, flash, etc. Books too I guess comics always did this but now it's showing up in books as well.

 

We've got a new trailer! As expected, it looks as if Madame Gao will end up being a major villain, and Rosario Dawson will be resuming her role again as the Night Nurse (Claire Temple). Thoughts on what this trailer shows us of his characterization? It isn't much, admittedly, but I'm still a bit split on it, personally.

 

Judging on the previous works, I think this will be great. The casting for all of the Marvel netflix works has been spot on. After saying that, I still think the glowing fist punch looks strange. Its like they are shining a high powered flash light through his hands.

 

Looks a lot like a cross between Batman Begins and Arrow.

 

Meh. Looks kinda cheesy and light-hearted compared to Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. I hope it maintains the tone of the previous Netflix Marvel shows, and this trailer is just a bit of wonky marketing.

 

The trailer does make it look a lot lighter than the other shows but I doubt the show will actually be that light. The fights look really good and I'm looking forward to seeing a superhero martial artist as I believe Daredevil barely qualifies as he is more of an acrobatic brawler tbh.

 

It has the Oliver Queen, lost billionaire comes back from the "dead" and evil CEO wants him gone. That has been done so many times and in so many ways. The action scenes is what will make this series

 

So, in short, this is a bit shit. Certainly Netflix's worst Marvel series to date.

My biggest problems:

Shoehorned romance. Business-centric plot goes nowhere fast. Considerably less serious than any of the other shows. Doesn't really have any mesage beyond "martial artz r kewl, so letz do Kung Fu". Humor falls extremely flat.

Also, the Danny Rand character is annoyingly moralistic and childish. To top it off, the dude playing him is far from the best actor (talkin CW levels of over-emoting), so when he tries to put on his menacing ninja face I just sort of laugh.

Things I liked:

Realistic close quarters martial arts. At no point do the characters air step or fight through hordes of enemies without getting their ass beaten.

The 5 minutes when he fought the Drunken Master in the second half of the season. That was legitimately great.

 

I completely agree, It does not tackle any serious or deep issues like DD, LC, or JJ. It was poorly written and the plot was poorly developed. As for the fights, I think there were lack luster. You see a lot of bad guys standing around waiting for their turn where in DD, the action flowed. Also the guy playing danny rand does not look like he spent 15 year in extreme martial arts training. I think the main character was poorly cast.

 

Man, all the negative reviews about this are scaring me. I really wanted this one to do well. Sucks. =/