Marvel’s Jeph Loeb On Why ‘Iron Fist’ Has A New Showrunner

Jeph Loeb surprised Marvel fans during The Defenders panel at San Diego Comic-Con, announcing that the critically-panned Iron Fist series had been given a second season on Netflix.

It was later revealed that showrunner Scott Buck has been replaced, and that former Sleepy Hollow executive producer Raven Metzner would be taking over. According to Loeb, the creative switch came down to scheduling.

“What happened, really very simply, was Scott Buck was on [ABC Marvel series] Inhumansand we were delighted to get another order from Netflix and knew that Scott was not going to be available to us,” Loeb said in an interview with Tracking Board. “We set out to find a new showrunner. Raven came in, told us a story and we thought, ‘that’s the next epic adventure for this character’ and got very excited about it.”

Loeb went on to say that this change felt a lot like those that occur when a comic passes from one writer or artist to another.

“When you look at something like Daredevil, which is easily accessible, if you ask people what’s your favorite Daredevil story? They go, well I’m a Frank Miller fan, or I’m a Brian Michael Bendis fan or I’m an Ed Brubaker fan,” he said. “Writers have come in and told their particular view of what that character could be. It was Frank who really looked at it and went, maybe he’s not a happy-go-lucky, plucky acrobat who’s running around, like a more mature version of Spider-Man. Maybe it’s a crime drama. And he changed the tone of that book. And then Bendis, he’s a crime writer, he took that and went to the next level. It’s not that we want the audience to get whiplash. It really does need to feel like this is the next chapter of what’s going to happen to Danny Rand and we’re really looking forward to it.”

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While details are scarce about the upcoming season of Iron Fist, Loeb confirmed at SDCC that the show would feature Colleen Wing teaming up with Misty Knight, mirroring their famed “Daughters of the Dragon” partnership in the comics.

In the meantime, fans can look forward to seeing Finn Jones and several other characters from Iron Fist in The Defenders, which debuts on Netflix on August 18.