[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCSPda7xQ3s]
San Diego Comic-Con has descended on the Bay Area, bringing with it legions of fans, uncomfortably sweaty cosplay, and a veritable flood of pop culture news. First out the gate is our first look at Netflix’s latest foray into the Marvel Universe: Iron Fist.
Quick primer: The titular man in tights is actually named Danny Rand, who will be played by the man formerly known as Loras Tyrell, Finn Jones. The last we saw Loras, he was getting a religious symbol carved into his forehead, and then blown into 1,ooo pieces shortly afterwards.
Which might explain why Danny looks so pissed in the short teaser trailer released at SDCC, but no. Danny Rand’s life is no picnic either. Raised a lily-white blonde-headed child in New York, Danny is eventually stranded by the death of his parents in the lost, vaguely-Asian city of K’un-Lun (also why the casting of Jones caused a stir, because the original backstory of Iron Fist is a whole mess of cultural appropriation, 197os-style). Young Danny studies mystical martial arts under Lei Kung the Thunderer, a large staple of which is concentrating energy into your fist. Like iron. Hence, you know, the name.
Words out on why Danny is strapped to a hospital bed in the teaser, but it does look like we’re dealing with his return to New York–also, just saying, home to Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones–after years in K’un-Lun. How long we have to wait until the eventual meet-cute with future BFF Luke Cage is anyone’s guess.
Iron Fist premieres 2017. Scott Buck, executive-producer of Dexter‘s final four years, will serve as showrunner.
