The final Defender has been found. Multiple outlets are reporting that Marvel TV has cast Finn Jones to play Danny Rand a.k.a. Iron Fist in the upcoming live-action series on Netflix.
Word of Jones’ casting first broke on That Hashtag Show, with Entertainment Weekly confirming the report soon after. Jones is best known for playing Loras Tyrell on Game of Thrones since the first season. Jones is slated to reprise his role in the upcoming sixth season of Game of Thrones, and he was last seen as a prisoner of religious fanatics in King’s Landing.
Iron Fist was created by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane during Marvel’s martial arts craze in the ‘70s. After his parents had been betrayed while on a trip in Asia, Danny Rand was raised in the mystical city of K’un-Lun where he became a martial artist and he mastered the power known as the Iron Fist.
Related: Scott Buck Named Showrunner of Marvel’s Iron Fist
There had been an online movement to cast an Asian actor in the role of Iron Fist, and it appears that group is already mounting a backlash against this news. However, there are also fans who didn’t want Marvel to change Iron Fist’s race. An easy compromise would be to use the Iron Fist series to introduce Shang Chi, Marvel’s Master of Kung-Fu or the Sons of the Tiger. Given that Misty Knight will already appear in Luke Cage, it seems likely that the multi-racial heroine Colleen Wing will maker her debut in Iron Fist as the other half of the Daughters of the Dragon.
Iron Fist is currently in pre-production under showrunner Scott Buck. The series is expected to begin filming later this year.
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