Ranking The Main Characters Of Marvel’s Iron Fist

4) Madame Gao

Harold Meachum might be pulling the strings of Rand Enterprises, but pulling his strings is Madame Gao. The little elderly Asian woman might not look dangerous, but Gao represents an ancient and insidious evil.

Gao never does much except turn up for a short while to threaten people, but the implicit power of the character is what makes her so chilling. Wai Ching Ho does such a terrific job at playing a sort of understated malevolence that it makes it all the more dramatic when Gao gets the chance to lash out (such as murdering a thug who failed to stop Iron Fist in episode five). Interestingly, she seems to have taken charge of the Hand since we last saw her, which is a good move on the writers’ part to ensure the evil ninjas are more interesting this time around. Gao makes a much better leader of the Hand then the dull Nobu from Daredevil did, at the very least.

Gao has been knocking around Marvel’s Netflixverse since Daredevil season 1, so it’s good to see her finally stepping into centre stage. The inter-connectivity between these series is one of their great strengths, and this villain represents that in a big way.