With Marvel’s The Defenders debuting on Netflix tomorrow, we hopped on the phone with Finn Jones, the actor who plays Danny Rand aka Iron Fist. He gave us some insight on his character heading into the team-up show and also addressed a few sticking points about Danny Rand.
Defenders is set about three months after the events of Iron Fist, and we first meet Danny in Cambodia where he’s tracking down a member of the Hand. As you’ll remember from the end of Iron Fist Season 1 (spoilers!), when Danny returned home to K’un L’un, the city had disappeared and some of his fellow monks were dead in the snow, the result of an assumed Hand attack.
“At the end of Iron Fist, Danny feels very guilty that he left his responsibilities, he ****ed up basically,” Jones said. “He realized how he allowed his own emotions and his own inner recklessness to get in the way of his responsibility and the result was the loss of his home and somewhere where he grew up for 15 years. He's being driven by guilt to take down the Hand, so we're seeing a much more purposeful and driven Danny at the beginning of Defenders.”
Jones had previously revealed that the production schedule of Iron Fist Season 1 was so tight that he would often have to learn the fight choreography just before filming. Viewers noticed this, commenting how the fight scenes weren’t on the level they’d expect from one of Marvel’s premiere martial arts characters, but Jones asserts that things are much different in Defenders.
“By the time of Defenders, I had been working on the character and training for about seven months, on and off, so by Defenders I was a lot more well-trained than at the beginning of Iron Fist because I had been doing it for so long. The good thing about Defenders, because it was an ensemble piece I wasn't needed every single second of the day to shoot, which is often the case when you're leading your own individual show. At the beginning of [Defenders] when we're all separated, there was definitely days in the week where I didn't have to shoot. Because of that, I went in and got a chance to rehearse, spend days on choreography before we actually shot. But then as we all came together and our schedules became a lot tighter because of the shooting demands, there was often times, especially towards the end of the show where we were picking up choreography on the day of shooting. That's kind of a regular thing, that's just television scheduling. Unfortunately, it's just something we have to get used to,” Jones said.
The combination of having more time to train and working with a different production crew than Iron Fist has Jones optimistic about how Danny will appear as an improved fighter in Defenders.
“I think the choreography is a lot slicker and I think the way it's been shot and edited is definitely a lot more cohesive [in Defenders]. I also think, just because I went from shooting six months of Iron Fist to immediately going on to shoot Defenders, just by nature of having all of that practice leading up to Defenders, the choreography felt a lot more grounded. It was a different choreography team and the way it was shot was a little bit different as well, and I think that definitely helped sell the fight scenes a lot better. And on top of that, I was more used to picking up choreography and the fluidity of the movements.”
Jones also used his time on the phone with us to clear up what he sees as a common misconception about how viewers see Danny.
“It's a common misconception that Danny was ‘the Chosen One’ and he came from money. I know there's a lot of talk about Danny being very privileged and this and that, but I do think it's a common misconception that people are just seeing the character in very broad strokes. Danny, yes he grew up in a very wealthy family, but at 10 years old he was ripped out of an airplane, he lost both of his parents, and he had to grow up in a very desolate environment for 15 years. He had to train and work super hard to become the Iron Fist. It was never about him being ‘the Chosen One.’ He definitely didn't live a life of privilege from 10 years-old onward. He actually lived a very difficult life,” Jones explained.
Defenders will see Danny fight evil alongside Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage, and Jones says the experience of meeting them will have a marked change on his character.
“Danny it definitely influenced by these three characters. Up until the end of Iron Fist, Danny didn't even know what a superhero was. He had these responsibilities and he had this power, but he didn't know how to handle it. He was so caught up in his own trauma and his own grief, he kind of let the power run away from him for a little bit, the responsibility run away from him a bit. He wasn't well-equipped to handle it, which is why he ran away from K'un L'un, foolishly, and he definitely regrets that now,” Jones said. “Meeting these three heroes, they're a little bit older, they're probably about six or seven years older than him, and they're people with abilities and problems that still manage to keep their **** together and live a responsible and purposeful life. Danny is really in admiration of that, especially in admiration of Daredevil. He sees someone who is slightly tortured, who has difficulties, who hasn't had the perfect life, but yet he can use these abilities in a way which is responsible and can help the community and help other people. Danny sees these other three people and he's really inspired by what they are able to achieve, so it's like Danny meeting a bunch of older brothers and sister for the first time, and they're keeping him in check a little bit, and they give him a self-realization that he can do that as well.”
Comic fans know that Iron Fist teams up with Luke Cage to form the superhero company Heroes for Hire, and Finn confirms that Defenders will indeed plant the seeds for it.
“What we're seeing is the birth of this iconic comic book bromance come to life on screen for the first time and it's super exciting,” Jones said. “I remember when I read the script, their scenes really stood out to me because [showrunner Marco Ramirez] did such a good job writing the scenes. It didn't feel cheesy or on the nose, it actually felt really relevant. It would have been so easy to just set it up and suddenly they're best buds from the get-go, but what I really admired about the way that they first meet is they don't see eye-to-eye. They come from very different backgrounds and there's conflict between them. It makes a really relevant relationship between the two. I'm super excited about this relationship, not only because it's a lot of fun but there's room for a lot of really interesting conversation along the way.”
The Defenders debuts on Netflix on August 18. Stay tuned to IGN for full reviews of all eight episodes.
Until then, check out our explanation of the Defenders villains the Hand, and our impressions of the first four episodes of Defenders we got to watch in advance.
Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire