Is Netflix’s Iron Fist Series About To Get Scrapped?

Netflix and Marvel are about to unveil Jessica Jones, the second series of a planned five that work to expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but a new report from Bleeding Cool suggests that the on-going battles between Marvel’s movie and television divisions may knock that count down to four.

Iron Fist, a series we’ve already heard Marvel is struggling to get right from a creative standpoint, is apparently on the chopping block thanks to interference from Marvel Studios. Bleeding Cool has a somewhat reliable track record with this kind of scoop, and its writer Rich Johnston wrote earlier today:

I was… told to expect the upcoming Iron Fist project through Netflix to be hit by Marvel Studios interference – they still do have a say and a signoff into how the show appear and the word is the show may be killed with such procedural notes.

Right now, Marvel and Netflix are understandably focused on the roll-out of Jessica Jones and getting pieces in place for the second season of Daredevil along with a Luke Cage series, both of which seem to be on much more solid ground.

However, there is something about this Iron Fist report that doesn’t quite sit right – it’s been reported that Carrie-Ann Moss’ character in Jessica Jones is a gender-swapped version of Jeryn Hogarth, who in the comics was an attorney for Wendell Rand and later the attorney for a superhero team-up group called Heroes for Hire, which featured both Jones and Iron Fist.

Assuming the Iron Fist series revolves around Danny Rand (Wendell’s son) taking up that superhero identity to fight crime, as expected, and that the Heroes for Hire group is basically The Defenders, Moss’ casting seems like some pretty huge connective tissue – as well as a sign Iron Fist is actually happening.

Something’s going on here, and it’s not clear exactly what at the moment. Personally, I don’t think Iron Fist will be completely scrapped – but it is worrying that there’s been so little announced motion on it.