What Should Marvel Studios Do About Iron Fist?

Marvel Studios has a big question mark on their hands on how to re-integrate Iron Fist in the MCU proper, and there are multiple options available to them. Well-known as Marvel’s chi-wielding kung fu superhero, Danny Rand, aka Iron Fist, made his live-action debut on his eponymous Netflix series in 2017, with Finn Jones portraying the character. Unfortunately, the results were rather mixed; Iron Fist Season 1 fared poorly, while Season 2 and Danny’s appearances on The Defenders and Luke Cage Season 2 saw a much stronger reception. With the cancellation of all of Marvel’s Netflix shows, Iron Fist has been MIA since 2018, but with the return of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again, the return of Marvel’s Netflix superheroes has been gradually gaining steam, especially with Jon Bernthal returning as the Punisher on Born Again and Krysten Ritter confirmed to return as Jessica Jones in the show’s second season.

That leaves only Luke Cage and Iron Fist as the last headlining Marvel-Netflix characters whose futures have not been determined yet. In the case of Iron Fist, his more checkered past, along with his specific heroic mythology, presents Marvel Studios with a bit of a problem on how best to bring K’un Lun’s protector back into play. Fortunately, there are several great options on the table, along with a fourth possibility that might be the most exciting one of all for Iron Fist fans.

Bring Back Finn Jones & Continue Danny’s Rand’s Story

The first possibility on the table is to more or less go the Daredevil: Born Again route by bringing back Finn Jones as Danny Rand and continuing where his story left off at the end of Iron Fist Season 2. At face value, retaining Jones as Iron Fist would seem to be iffiest suggestion given the history of Iron Fist on Netflix and the poor reputation of the show’s first season. However, this overlooks how much Danny’s story, characterization, and especially his action scenes greatly improved from The Defenders onward. Iron Fist Season 2 in particular was a tremendous upgrade that more than made-up for Season 1’s shortcomings with excellent martial arts fight scenes along with a deep dive into Iron Fist lore that included a cliffhanger ending setting up Danny to meet his Iron Fist predecessor, Orson Randall.

Finn Jones also exhibited great chemistry with Mike Colter’s Luke Cage, the pair really capturing the Power Man & Iron Fist friendship and heroic alliance in spades in both The Defenders and Jones’ appearance on Luke Cage Season 2. Jones himself is also more than eager to return, acknowledging the pitfalls of Iron Fist Season 1 and sharing his enthusiasm to “prove people wrong.” It has generally come to be understood that Jones was hardly the issue with Iron Fist Season 1, especially with the shockingly rushed martial arts training he was given for the show. With Iron Fist‘s post-season 1 pros far outweighing its cons, it seems like it’d be worthwhile to bring Jones back with the rest of the Marvel-Netflix crew to solidify that Iron Fist Season 1’s failures are a thing of the past, especially with the exciting promise of a Danny Rand-Orson Randall team-up and The Immortal Iron Fist run being the narrative foundation of Danny’s return as part of the deal.

[RELATED – Iron Fist: Give Finn Jones Another Chance as the Marvel Hero]

Focus on Colleen Wing as the New Iron Fist

An alternative to a direct continuation of Iron Fist Season 2 would be to shift the spotlight over to Danny Rand’s fellow martial arts hero and new wielder of the Iron Fist, Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing. Even in Iron Fist‘s rockier Season 1 days, the show wasn’t without its popular elements, and Henwick’s performance as Colleen was one of the most beloved. Throughout Iron Fist‘s run and her role on The Defenders, Henwick shined as a warrior, ally, mentor, and love interest alike for Danny, and by the end of Season 2, she’d earned her own place in the Iron Fist legacy with Danny transferring the Iron Fist to her.

As Iron Fist Season 2 ended, Colleen had taken Danny’s role of protecting the streets of New York City (with Danny also having independently regained the Iron Fist himself in the season’s final scene). With Danny on his quest to find Orson Randall, a break-out character like Colleen could be perfect to step in as the main Iron Fist of the show’s continuation on Disney+. With Henwick’s Colleen already so beloved coupled with her martial arts skills and character arc of leaving the Hand behind to become only the second female Iron Fist (following her ancestor, Wu Ao-Shi), she could be an ideal candidate for Marvel’s future plans to bring Iron Fist back into the mainline MCU.

Introduce Lin Lie as the New Iron Fist

While Danny Rand and Colleen Wing are both Iron Fists audiences are already well-acquainted with, another possibility could be to bring in a new warrior to take on the mantle of the MCU’s Iron Fist. Marvel Studios has a built-in choice for that in Danny’s direct Iron Fist successor, Lin Lie. Originally introduced into Marvel Comics as Sword Master, Lin Lie ventured to K’un Lun and was bestowed the chi of the Iron Fist before later becoming a student under Danny’s tutelage to master his kung fu and the power of the Iron Fist. Eventually, Lie became Marvel’s main Iron Fist after Danny’s apparent death in 2022 as part of Marvel’s endeavor to pass the mantle of the present-tense Iron Fist onto an Asian character. With Iron Fist re-entering the MCU fold, the time could be perfect for Lin Lie to make his live-action debut.

One of the great strengths of Iron Fist Season 2 was in how much it mined from the mythos of the Iron Fist as a lineage of warriors with a deep legacy, and set up a far greater role of Iron Fist lore after its cliffhanger. However, with previous Iron Fists like Wu Ao-Shi and Orson Randall name-dropped, the focus of Iron Fist’s lore has mainly been in the past. Lin Lie could carry that into the future, and coupled with being the wearer of one of the greatest Iron Fist costumes ever designed, the next chapter of Iron Fist in the MCU could benefit greatly from Lin Lie wielding the might of K’un Lun’s Immortal Weapon. With Lin Lie not being cast, a talented young Asian martial arts performer like Dallas Liu of Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender or Karate Kid: Legends‘ Ben Wang both spring to mind as great candidates.

Why Not All of the Above?

While each of the individual possibilities for Iron Fist’s future brings with it great potential, the best one of all might be an “all hands on deck” approach that brings Jones’ Danny Rand, Henwick’s Colleen Wing, and Lin Lie on-board as a trio of Iron Fist protagonists. The sheer fact that Charlie Cox, Jon Bernthal, and Krysten Ritter have already returned along with Daredevil: Born Again essentially acting as Daredevil Season 4 strongly suggests that the writing is on the wall that the whole Marvel-Netflix hero roster is coming back into the game. That indicates that Jones and Henwick are likely to do the same, which in turn sets up the possibility of continuing from where Iron Fist Season 2 left off, with Danny on a kung fu adventure with Orson Randall and Colleen fighting crime in New York.

By the same token, the introduction of Lin Lei as a new, unexpected Iron Fist could really raise the bar of possibilities for what would be the de facto Iron Fist Season 3. Danny, already expressing doubts about his future as the Iron Fist in Season 2, could become both student and mentor with Jones’ Danny learning from Orson Randall’s wisdom and passing his own onto Lin Lie, an Iron Fist lineage of sifus that Colleen could also be a part of. In turn, with the vengeful Davos (Sacha Dawan) still undoubtedly determined to defeat Danny and Colleen, the next Iron Fist series could really be the ultimate tale of K’un Lun’s Immortal Weapon, with no fewer than four Iron Fists in play going up against Davos as he properly becomes Steel Serpent and re-assembles a kung fu army of his own to bring into the battle. The possibilities of incredible Hong Kong-style martial arts action alone are absolutely mind-boggling to contemplate from that scenario, along with the role of past, present, and future Iron Fist lore and mythology to play into the story. With the added incentive of a mega-Iron Fist ensemble, Marvel Studios’ best option could well be to continue from Iron Fist Season 2’s cliffhanger with Danny Rand, Orson Randall, Colleen Wing, and Lin Lie all on-board as protagonists.

Iron Fist Seasons 1 and 2 along with The Defenders are available to stream on Disney+.