The Marvel series “Iron Fist” has been scolded a lot on Netflix. And while “Daredevil” Charlie Cox has already returned and is now even getting his own series (“Daredevil: Born Again”), rumor has it that “Jessica Jones” Krysten Ritter is already on the verge of returning and fans hear repeated comebacks from “ Punisher” Jon Bernthal and “Luke Cage” Mike Colter demand that almost no one wants to see Finn Jones as Iron Fist again. But the actor would like to get back into the role and do better. After all, it was not his fault that the Netflix series, now on Disney+, was so poorly received.
» “Iron Fist” on Disney+*
Jones on Iron Fist Season 1: No Time for Good Action!
On the Geekscape podcast Jones agrees with criticism that Season 1 of Iron Fist “didn’t live up to expectations”. According to him, the only problem was the schedule. “Iron Fist” was the last of four Marvel series, which then culminated in the “The Defenders” crossover. This position as the last series led to timing problems:
“This TV season was rushed because we had to do The Defenders right after,” he says of Iron Fist season one. “All the other actors were committed to this scheme, so we had to film these 13 episodes in a certain amount of time – and unfortunately that wasn’t enough time to do what was expected of us and what we hoped for.” Jones reiterates that the goal was to make “an excellent kick-ass kung fu and martial arts series” and “the reason we failed is due to lack of time due to poor planning”.
Jones on Iron First Season 2: We Fixed the Bugs!
According to Jones, the production of the second season “understood the weaknesses and worked hard to correct the course of the series. And I think we did that. We’ve done a fantastic job bringing the show back to its code.” But right after that, Disney decided to pull all Marvel series from Netflix, so that was the end.
Advice: Despite the lack of time – a big problem of “Iron Fist” is unfortunately Finn Jones
It’s not new information that the people behind “Iron Fist” struggled with an overly tight schedule for the first season and yes, the second season is significantly better than the first season, yes in the opinion of the author of these lines, this does not change the fact that Finn Jones is ultimately not a good Iron Fist. The character is the preeminent martial arts fighter in the Marvel Universe and you have to feel it. For that you need a martial arts expert who can also act and not an actor with whom you somehow try to get the martial arts part right.
In the second season, that partially succeeded. Jones definitely trained better and more for the next season. Most notably, his character wears a lot more of a mask here, making it easier to use a stunt double more often. Clayton J. Barber also brought on board a real expert for the action choreography, who probably found a better approach to the lead actor and gave him a different, simpler fighting style. Yet at the end of the day, Jones’ limitations pop up again and again – which is why it’s not surprising that van Jessica Henwick strongly embodied Colleen Wing increasingly became the center of attention and got the best action sequences.
Brett Chan, who coordinated the action and stunts in the first season, was often criticized for his work, but later defended himself. He also blamed the lack of time, but at least subliminally indicated that Jones had done too little to make up for the shortcoming: martial arts is a lifestyle and not something you can train for occasionally, he explained Stunt Expert ambiguously enough to add that Jessica Henwick practiced for six hours every day — even if she was also filming that day.
Jones, on the other hand, revealed that due to other commitments, the protagonist was only able to start martial arts training three weeks before shooting started, practicing martial arts for two and a half hours a day and having to spend the rest on weight and muscle training. During the shoot, there was hardly any time to continue training with him – only on weekends. According to Jones, he was only able to learn the individual fight choreographies 15 minutes before they were shot.
It is clear that good action scenes can hardly be created under these circumstances. With experts like Jackie Chan, Scott Adkins or Iko Uwais it somehow manages to do that, but hardly with a martial arts novice. But with all the discussion, according to the author of these lines, one must not forget that the lack of time and bad action were by no means the only problems with “Iron Fist”. In the end, Netflix insisted the series be 13 episodes, even though the story fit into half of it – there was enough padding in the episode, alienating fans.