Between the titular Iron Fist character’s problematic history and the Netflix series’ surprising lack of coherent, well-choreographed action, the show’s first season on Netflix made it the most poorly received of the other three street hero-based properties (Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage) and the combined mini-series (The Defenders). The latter somewhat rehabilitated the character of Danny Rand (Finn Jones), whose white, privileged background immediately clashed with that of Cage (Mike Colter) and other characters. But the action? Eh, not so much.
Thanks to the sequence previewed in the final trailer for Iron Fist‘s second season, however, it seems new showrunner Raven Metzner and the rest of the Marvel/Netflix creative team heard everyone’s complaints, because it’s jam-packed with the kind of fighting longtime fans of the comics know and love. Sure, it’s a trailer, but it showcases plenty of longer, one-take shots of Rand beating down the bad guys to hint at greater things to come. There’s even a lovely bit in a restaurant when the hero magically removes an attacker’s knife and launches it into a nearby wall, out of harm’s way.
And then there’s the return of Davos (Sacha Dhawan), Danny’s friend-turned-enemy who, as comic book readers will already know, is destined to become the Steel Serpent. Between his lengthy presence in the trailer and the fact that he sports a glowing fist (albeit a red one), it’s beginning to look like Danny will have met his match this season. Or at least for the first half of it, as the Marvel/Netflix shows love to spend the first few episodes drawing out one antagonist before introducing another, and it seems Iron Fist season two will be doing this with Mary Walker (Alive Eve), otherwise known as Typhoid Mary.
She doesn’t get much screen time in this trailer, but judging by her brief encounter with Danny in a New York City subway station, the Iron Fist has a lot of catching up to do when the second season drops September 7th on Netflix.
