Marvel’s Iron Fist Knows Why The Show Failed

Finn Jones, the actor behind Danny Rand, explains that Iron Fist failed because it was rushed due to scheduling conflicts with The Defenders.

By Jonathan Klotz | Updated

Marvel’s Iron Fist series on Netflix is often overlooked while its fellow Defenders series, Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones, received critical praise and fans asking for the characters to make a return to the MCU. Finn Jones, the actor behind Danny Rand, is well aware of how his show failed to meet expectations, explaining on the Geekscape podcast why he believes it failed. Instead of anything particularly juicy, the actor lays blame on the harsh reality of trying to juggle four series at once, “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.”

Giving some more detail, Jones’ explanation highlights one of the early growing pains experienced by Marvel, which unfortunately claimed Iron Fist through bad timing, “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.”

Finn Jones is remarkably self-aware about the reception of one of the first Marvel streaming series, as Iron Fist Season 1 has the lowest rating of any of the Defenders series. As the star himself mentioned, the lackluster action sequences, which should have been a highlight of the martial arts-based series, were a tremendous letdown. Years earlier, Charlie Cox’s Daredevil gained critical acclaim for the still impressive hallway fight sequence early in its initial season, further highlighting just how disappointed fans were in Iron Fist’s action scenes.

Finn Jones on Iron Fist’s failing: “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.”

Unfortunately, while season 2 was an improvement from the first effort, it was released just a month before Disney canceled all of the Marvel shows streaming on Netflix, including Iron Fist. For a while, all of the Defenders shows and characters were kept off of all streaming services, before making a grand return to Disney+ years after the service was established. Now that Charlie Cox has made it through the forbidden door, portraying Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk, could the other characters, Luke Cage (Mike Colter), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), and “The Punisher” Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) make the jump?

marvel Luke Cage Iron Fist Marvel
Finn Jones (Danny Rand) and Mike Colter (Luke Cage)

Other Marvel fan favorites that debuted in Iron Fist, and could make great additions to a street-level series in the MCU, include Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing and Simone Missick’s Misty Knight. In the comics, they are the Daughters of the Dragon, along with the future Mrs. Kingpin from the comics, Alice Eve’s Typhoid Mary. One of the problems faced in returning Finn Jones’ Danny Rand to the MCU, is the success of Shang-Chi, another martial artist superhero, and while the characters are very different, they are also extremely similar. Each hero uses mystical energy of a potentially alien/extra-dimensional origin to punch really hard, has a hidden city of martial artists in their background, and is obscenely rich through methods of vague legality.

If the possibility does come up for Finn Jones to put on the dragon tattoo again and rejoin Marvel as Iron Fist, the actor is up for it, hoping that the third time is the charm. In the meantime, if fans want more Iron Fist, check out the recent Avengers Forever, which includes a version of Thor with the power of the Iron Fist, and Jason Aaron’s Avengers run, going into the origins of the world’s very first Iron Fist.