This was published 7 years ago
Netflix's Iron Fist star Finn Jones deconstructs hero myth: 'He can hardly save himself'
In the new Netflix superhero drama Iron Fist, there are few heroic feats, no tall buildings to leap and not an inch of spandex to be seen.
This is a darker world, actor Finn Jones says, which taps into a darker superhero paradigm, the post-war, super-soldier, de-constructing rather than glamorising the classic hero myth.
Marvel's Iron Fist: Trying to go beyond the "white saviour" model.Credit: Cara Howe/Netflix
"So much so that I wouldn't even call Danny Rand a hero at this point in time," Jones says. "I think Danny Rand has a long journey to go on before he can claim the right to call himself a superhero, or even the Iron Fist."
When the audience meets Rand, Jones explains, "he is a tormented, troublesome character, who has to undergo a lot of personal difficulties to then be able to really be centred enough to take on that role."
Finn Jones (centre) plays Danny Rand, a "tormented, troublesome" character, in Marvel's Iron Fist.Credit: David Giesbrecht/Netflix
Iron Fist is based on the comic book of the same name created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Gil Kane.
As Green Guide sits down in a New York hotel room to discuss the series with its stars Jones and Jessica Henwick, who plays Rand's closest ally, Colleen Wing, we seem to land quickly on the delicate topic of cultural appropriation.
The series, say its critics, fails to address what is seen by many as the comic's "white saviour" narrative: Iron Fist's real self Danny Rand is a white man trained in martial arts after he discovers the ancient city of K'un L'un.
"I completely understand where that frustration comes from," Jones says candidly. "We live in a world right now which is very unequal: culturally, economically, politically people feel like they're being screwed over."
There is also, he adds, a fundamental inequality in how film and television screens reflect the larger world. "There need to be more leads for people of colour, especially Asians," Jones says. "That needs to happen."
On the flipside, as the issue has generated headlines, Jones says most people simply see the headline and comment without seeing "the whole picture".
Jones doesn't believe Danny Rand fits the "white saviour" narrative because, as written, he is deeply flawed. "He can hardly save himself, let alone an entire race of people," Jones says. "He's very complicated, has suffered immense trauma and he is struggling."
What is more, Jones says, the television adaptation re-imagines K'un L'un as a less Asian-stereotype, more multi-ethnic society, "a lot more broader and a lot more nuanced than maybe the comic books first intended."
Jones' co-star Jessica Henwick – who is of Singaporean Chinese and Zambian-English heritage – concurs.
"If anyone understands the conversation that is happening, it's me," Henwick says. "I've experienced in my personal life, and professionally, what it means to be an Asian, and what it means to be a woman."
Henwick has faith in the integrity of the material, and hopes the audience would "trust that I would not have signed on to play a role which took us any further backward".
In the larger knitted tapestry of Marvel's shared storytelling – the so-called "Marvel cinematic universe" – there are the classic hero-focused films, network television properties such as Agents of Shield and, on Netflix, a suite of darker stories, such as Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and now Iron Fist.
The Netflix series, Jones says, are substantially darker than the other elements of the Marvel world. "You have the freedom [on Netflix] to explore different types of scenarios, they're not beholden to the politics of network television."
That is why, Jones says, "we see Jessica Jones being about female rights and rape culture and Luke Cage being about gentrification and black culture. We're able to tap into those things".
The series' larger canvas – seasons of 13 one-hour episodes – also offer space for more complex storytelling. "The films are kind of spectacles that have cool and quirky dialogue and maybe they touch on a few things but these shows you really get to spend 13 hours de-compartmentalising."
The series addresses a raft of complex issues, including homelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health and the "one per cent" and corporate responsibility.
"It asks, what roles does a corporation play in modern society and also looping into that, which I find really fascinating, the heroin epidemic that we see in this city and throughout the US," Jones says. "Where that goes when you follow the money and you follow it up to the top. Who's really in control of that?"
Both Jones and Henwick say the series puts a formidable demand on them, in physical terms. "Every day I wasn't working I was in the gym, weight training, an hour of karate, an hour of katana training, an hour of choreography," she says.
Jones spent a month before filming working on his body, trying to give himself the kind of flexibility he would need to meet the martial arts aspect of the story. "To get my body flexible, to get an idea of the moves and the fluidity," he says.
"Always, safety is our main priority [but] we've had a few scrapes and bruises," Jones adds.
Both Jones and Henwick are UK-born, where the comic culture was historically quite different to the US's DC Comics and Marvel. In the UK, for kids of a certain age, there was Beano, and the teen girl's magazine Jackie, as well as European imports such as Tin Tin and Asterix.
"The style of it is different, the drawing style, the visual style and also the storytelling," Henwick says. "I felt like something like Tin Tin was really minimal. English comic book or superhero-type things, it's very much keep your powder dry."
Henwick points to Harry Potter as a great example of English children's storytelling: "You save that big moment until the end, you don't see the big magic craziness until the last one and that's when the dragon comes out of Gringotts. We keep our powder dry." American comic book stories, in contrast, are more commercially focused, she says.
WHAT Marvel's Iron Fist
WHEN Netflix, from Friday, March 17.