‘Iron Fist’: Finn Jones & Jessica Henwick On Drawing From Comics

Iron Fist Marvel Comics

Iron Fist will be making its debut on Netflix next month. With comic book adaptations, it’s never going to be exactly the same as their source material, but there will surely be similarities.

Recently, Iron Fist stars Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick, who play Danny Rand and Colleen Wing, respectively, sat down to discuss the latest Marvel Netflix series. They were asked what they were able to take from the comics regarding their characters and if they brought any of that to their roles.

Jones said that he believes it’s vital to just learn from the material that’s given and take from that rather than focus solely on the comic book version.

“We both [he and Henwick] worked on Game of Thrones for six years, and I don’t know about you, but what I learned about being on that show, and it was an adaptation, is that it’s important to just deal with the source material that you’ve got in front of you. You know, I found reading the comic books and watching the other Netflix series is really good for getting an idea of the tone of the character in the shows. I just stayed very focused to our version of Danny Rand and what I can bring to the role, rather than emulate something that’s been before.”

Henwick agreed with Jones and added that what she did pull from the comics is her character, Colleen Wing’s, sense of humor and tough demeanor.

“I agree. From the comic books, I definitely wanted to pull out that sort of very dry humor that she has, and that no bullshit New Yorker demeanor. We  keep that. And of course, as the clip shows, the clip that was released yesterday, we also have her signature white jumpsuit look. Not quite as superhero-y as the comics, it’s not spandex, but we give a lot of nods to the comic books.”

Henwick also discussed Colleen as a role model to young girls and how she didn’t necessarily want the role at first because she didn’t want to fit into a stereotype about Asians, but then found herself wanting to tell an Asian story and for there to be that representation.

For me, when they approached me about Colleen, I was a little bit like, huh, do I want to play an Asian woman who does martial arts who’s a love interest? Do I want to do those three things? Because I’ve always shied away from it. In fact, I’ve shied away from playing Asian characters, if you look back I’m playing characters that have no relevance to my ethnicity. But I reached a stage last year where I said, I want to start telling Asian stories, I want a young Asian girl to go, oh my god, that reminds me of my relationship with my mom.

So I had some concerns, and Jeph Loeb rang me and he said, “We’re going to take the stereotype, and we’re going to – we’re not going to avoid it, we’re going to inspect it.” For example, she is, I don’t know how many episodes you’ve seen, she’s a martial artist, she fights in fight cages, we’ve seen that before. What happens when you become addicted to that? What happens when you can only talk with your fists and you struggle to communicate on any other level and you’ve become addicted to fighting? So we’ve taken this stereotype and we’ve said, okay, what is the actual realism in it? You know? Which was interesting to me.

Iron Fist will hit Netflix on March 17.

Source: Collider

Mae Abdulbaki

Mae Abdulbaki

Mae Abdulbaki is an entertainment journalist and Weekend Editor at Heroic Hollywood. She's a geek, a lover of words, superheroes, and all things entertainment.