I’ll never forget it. I was in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con for the panel and first episode of Marvel/Netflix’s The Defenders series. All of the stars from the previous shows were on hand. Everyone was being announced to roaring applause: Charlie Cox, Daredevil! Mike Colter, Luke Cage! Krysten Ritter, Jessica Jones! And…that was basically it. They left out Finn Jones, star of Iron Fist, probably because he would’ve been met with boos, or worse, complete silence.
While things weren’t always perfect with Marvel’s Netflix shows, they were all pretty good and enjoyed by fans. The only exception was Iron Fist, which had a terrible couple of seasons in which Jones was probably the least popular member of the cast. Fans did not like his portrayal of Danny Rand at all, and it’s no surprise the second season, which saw attention turned to Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing, is the better one.
So why did the show fail? Jones has an idea, and told Geekscape Podcast that he thinks it all has to do with scheduling. Really?
“[With] he first season, there were a lot of creative challenges, and it didn’t live up to the expectations, and I think that came down to…really, it came down to scheduling conflicts,” Jones explains. “That season of television was rushed because we had The Defenders that we had to film straight afterwards.”
“We had to film The Defenders [and] we had all those other actors locked into that schedule, so we had to film those 13 episodes of television in that set time, and unfortunately, we just didn’t have the time to do what was expected and what was desired, which was a kick-ass, amazing kung fu show and martial arts show.”
“And the reason that show failed was because of the time constraints [and] because of bad scheduling.”
Was the show rushed? Probably. Were the fight scenes with Jones lackluster in that first season? Definitely. But ultimately, fans just didn’t take to Jones at all. That’s not a knock on the guy as he seems genuinely nice and has been pretty good in other things. But there’s a reason why you don’t hear clamoring for him to join the MCU the way you do the other Marvel/Netflix stars. If Iron Fist does show up again the role will probably be played by someone new.
