10 Things You Need To Know About Iron Fist

Though very little has been known about the project for quite a while, Marvel have finally announced who will play the lead in their upcoming TV series, Iron Fist. The man set to play the titular hero is Finn Jones, an English actor most well known for starring as Loras Tyrell in Game of Thrones. The series will form part of the Netflix arm of the Marvel universe, which so far includes Daredevil, Jessica Jones and will soon see Luke Cage and The Punisher series, too. Iron Fist is the odd one out of these as the character is a mystical martial arts based hero, which might seem at odds with the more realistic, gritty tone of the Netflix shows so far. Still, Iron Fist is set to be included in the upcoming The Defenders series which will unite all these characters. So, now that we finally know who will play him in his live-action debut, here are 10 facts that you need to know about Danny Rand and his alter ego Iron Fist before he gets his very own show on Netflix. 10) He Has Mystical Powers Danny Rand is primarily a master martial artist (one of the best in the world, in fact), as trained by the immortal Lei-Kung. However, he does have another, more super-powered, skillset. Being the Iron Fist brings Rand the power to focus his chi (the energy force that runs through one’s body in Chinese culture) to enhance his combat abilities, like speed, stamina, strength, senses, agility, durability and reflexes. Controlling his chi also allows him to recover from just about any injury (although this can severely weaken him and he still feels pain). Basically, he’s near impossible to defeat. For anyone wondering, he's not called Iron Fist because he's related to Tony Stark or anything. His name is actually derived from his signature move. By channelling his chi into his fist he can perform inhumanly powerful punches. So it’s like he’s got a fist made of iron, geddit? 9) He Is A Real Team Player In the comics, the Defenders is generally a group for heroes who don’t play well in a team and who usually have their own agendas, sort of like the Avengers’ rowdier, younger brother. Iron Fist, however, has been part of many superhero teams over the years. He was part of the original Heroes For Hire before he created his own much larger organization of the same name. Later on, he was one of the New Avengers and Secret Avengers, as well as being on Captain America’s side in the Civil War conflict. Iron Fist is mostly identified with the Defenders, though. Interestingly, the group were originally brought together by none other than Doctor Strange to deal with supernatural and mystical threats. We can hope that this means Benedict Cumberbatch will at least cameo in the upcoming Defenders series, but we probably shouldn’t hold our breath. 8) He’s Also Been Daredevil In the comics, Danny Rand once tried to help his friend Matt Murdock out of a spot of bother by taking up the Daredevil mantle. When police imprisoned Murdock after apparently finding out that he was Daredevil, Rand dressed in the Man Without Fear’s costume in a bid to convince the police that they were mistaken. It worked, but when Murdock got out, he assumed someone was trying to steal his thunder and so he attacked Rand. Daredevil vs Daredevil! Once Murdock realized who it was, though, he got Iron Fist to keep up the pretence a little longer so that he could investigate a certain someone's murder. Now that Daredevil and Iron Fist are about to interact on screen, it's not too far-fetched to assume that this plot line could occur in a TV series in future. 7) He Is Rich While he does share that common superhero trait of being filthy stinking rich with the likes of Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark, unlike them, Danny Rand didn’t become a hero thanks to his excess of wealth. Rather, he had already been Iron Fist for a while before he inherited his father’s multi-million dollar investments corporation. At first, he uses his newfound wealth to fund the Defenders, but later revamps the company into a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the poor. His fellow Defenders also sign up for the organization; Luke Cage offers his services as a hero, Jessica Jones as a detective and Matt Murdock as a lawyer. If Rand’s wealth is introduced by the time of The Defenders, it will be really interesting to see how this clashes with his fellow, much more grounded, heroes. 6) He Is Not The Only Iron Fist Similar to someone like Black Panther, who will also soon enter the MCU, Iron Fist is a title passed down through the generations. As such, Danny Rand is far from the first. He is the sixty-sixth, to be precise, the latest in a long line of warriors chosen to be the sworn protector of the mystical city of K’un Lun. Other Iron Fists include the original Quan Yaozu, the first female Iron Fist Wu-Ao-Shi and Rand’s immediate predecessor, Orson Randall, who was active during World War Two. Randall later trained up Wendell Rand, Danny’s father, as his protégé. However, Wendell turned away from the Iron Fist mantle due to personal tragedy. Later, his trek across the Himalayas to return to K’un Lun was what killed Wendell and his wife Heather, leaving Danny an orphan. 5) He Grew Up In An Inter-Dimensional City After his parents died when he was nine years old, Danny was taken in to the magical city of K’un Lun and raised to be the next Iron Fist. K’un Lun itself appears to be in Tibet but is actually situated on an entirely different plane of reality. It is only accessible from Earth every ten years, from an interdimensional nexus found in Tibet. If you really want to get into the lore of it, K’un Lun is actually built from the pieces of an alien spaceship that crashed into this other dimension millennia ago. However, its true origins have been forgotten over time. It is also one of the so-called Seven Capital Cities of Heaven. The others being Peng Lai Island, K’un Zi, Z’Gambo, Under City, Tiger Island and Kingdom of Spiders. We don’t expect all of this to be translated to the screen, though, so just consider this important background reading. 4) He And Misty Knight Were Lovers If you are up to date with your Marvel TV series news, you might know that comics character Misty Knight will appear in the Luke Cage solo show, played by Simone Missick. However, she is actually more connected to Iron Fist in the comics. While she has been romantically-involved with Cage, she was in a far longer relationship with Danny Rand. Misty Knight is a hero in her own right too, though. A former NYPD cop, she lost her arm in the line of duty. Luckily, Tony Stark was on hand (heh) to build her a new super-strong bionic one. With that, she left the force to become a superpowered private eye with her pal Colleen Wing. Given her connection to two of the characters headlining their own shows, expect Misty to be a pretty major part of the Netflixverse (is that what we’re calling it now?). 3) He And Luke Cage Are Partners Despite any rivalry that could happen from them both being romantically-linked with Misty, Iron Fist and Power Man are long-time partners and best friends in the comics. In an effort to combine the popularity of the then current Blaxploitation and Kung Fu crazes, Marvel merged Rand and Cage into one title, thereby creating one of their most perennial superhero friendships. Together, the pair formed the Heroes For Hire agency (which later included more famous names like Ant-Man, Punisher and Spider-Man). Because of this, it has to be assumed that Mike Colter will turn up at some point in Iron Fist. If he does, it looks like Luke will be the character that knits together all the Defenders, having appeared first in Jessica Jones and then in his own series. Perhaps he’ll call on Daredevil soon as well? 2) He Got His Powers By Defeating A Dragon As we said earlier, Iron Fist is much more steeped in the mystical side of the Marvel world than the other lead characters of the Netflix shows. If you don’t believe us, the comics' Danny Rand got his powers by punching a dragon. You can’t get much more mystical than that. At the age of nineteen, Danny was deemed ready for the Iron Fist role and his final test was to fight an immortal dragon called Shou-Lao. If he beat her, he would be granted the power of the Iron Fist. Needless to say, he did. The battle also gave him the trademark dragon tattoo on his chest. It is a nice twist that Danny actively fought to become a superhero, rather than having it foisted upon him, as with most. For that we hope Marvel will retain this origin tale, although we really can’t see them keeping the superhero vs. dragon fight. For shame. 1) He Isn't Actually Asian When news broke that Finn Jones was playing this martial arts themed superhero, there was an outcry on social media that the character had been whitewashed. While we agree that there are still too few superheroes of colour around, this claim about Iron Fist is just false. The character isn’t Asian in the comics. As with pretty much all of Marvel’s heroes (shout out for the Canadian Alpha Fight and Captain Britain!), Danny Rand is American. He was raised in the US until, as we know, his parents died whereupon he was brought up in K’un Lun. Only after becoming Iron Fist did he return to the US where he is based for the rest of his crime-fighting career. They could have recast the role as an Asian-American, but a lot of people are agreed that the character would then probably be guilty of cultural stereotyping. So let’s be happy with the Iron Fist casting and hope that Marvel bring some more actually Asian super-characters to the screen. How about Shang-Chi or Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel?