It’s been an issue that’s hung over the series like a dark cloud since it was first announced in 2014. No matter the other elements such as mysticism, tone, and plot, there’s been a very big question about the upcoming Netflix Iron Fist series that revolves around one thing quite simply: race. It can’t be avoided, and frankly it shouldn’t. Since the character’s debut in 1974 as a young, rich man who returns from a mystical Asian land as a martial arts master, there’s been a lot of debate over his race and how it might, and in some cases should, be portrayed on the page as well as in his first ever live-action appearance. There’s a lot to dig into, from his background to the connotations behind a white man proving himself to be superior above all others in one aspect, to whether or not it would be further stereotyping to make him a “token” Chinese character. This has only been further spurred on with the introduction of more East Asian characters in the Netflix Daredevil series, as well as the more recent announcement of Scott Buck (Six Feet Under, Dexter) as showrunner and executive producer. Many have weighed in on the issue from all sides of the discussion, however we felt it necessary to venture even further with the concept being argued over. So those of us willing to tackle two very important and blunt questions about Danny Rand, the title of Iron Fist, and the upcoming series itself, have gathered to hash it out and give our thoughts.
Do you think Iron Fist’s origin story should be changed to avoid his being a “mighty whitey” stereotype?
Emma Houxbois: No. Iron Fist’s origin is pretty much that he completed a series of challenges that culminated in punching a dragon. Nothing else is essential, which Ed Brubacker and Matt Fraction demonstrated pretty handily when they revised it from Danny being “The” Iron Fist to “an” Iron Fist. As long as Danny’s portrayed as being white, there’s no getting around it.
Jules Low: This is such a tough call. On one hand, eliminating the “white saviour” aspect to his story would immensely improve my feelings about how any adaptation is handled, however a huge part of what makes Iron Fist a martial arts hero is what he goes through. The challenge, the trials, the struggles he faces to take on the mantle are what make him unique in that regard. You could try and find a way to work around the idea that Danny’s father “discovered” K’un-L’un and maybe the nature of how Danny comes to find himself in the city, but you can’t erase what he endures in his training and his success in that regard without fundamentally changing what Iron Fist is, in my opinion.
Desiree: I agree with Emma, there’s really no way around the problematic aspects of his origin. He’s a white guy who found a magical indiscriminate Asian city and learned kung-fu because his originators — Roy Thomas and Gil Kane — really liked kung-fu movies. The way Thomas tells it, the movie had a “ceremony of the Iron Fist” in it, which is where Danny’s superhero name comes from. His entire origin, from his very creation as a character, is inspired by a very specific view of Asian culture. Much like Dr. Strange’s origin, you can’t remove the Asian inspired aspects of his origin and overall narrative.
Instead of removing his origin to avoid the “mighty whitey” trope, update it and include an Asian actor instead.
Jamie Kingston: A man of any race could have completed the series of challenges that resulted in him punching the great dragon and getting the powers. K’un-L’un is a magical dimension that’s kinda Asian flavored. It can be done with an Asian or Asian-American guy just as easily as the white guy they’ve used so far. His white dad could still have discovered K’un-L’un, and his part Asian child could still be the one who grows up there. He can still face all that without it being “extra special white boy gets the training from the non-white mystics until he gets his powers.” I don’t think it’s all that shoe-horned.
Do you think an Asian American actor should be cast as Iron Fist?
Emma: Asian yes, American, not necessarily. Presumably his introduction is going to have something to do with the Hand’s presence in New York, so there’s no reason why he couldn’t be portrayed as coming to Hell’s Kitchen directly from East Asia. With that said, I’m incredibly sympathetic with CBR Managing Editor Albert Ching’s position in saying that he doesn’t want an Asian American Iron Fist. To me, the real crux of his argument, the most compelling point, is this: “[…] he’s defined by martial arts much more than other superheroes who just happen to use martial arts — and it’s problematic if that’s the first lead white comics character to be readily accepted on screen as played by an Asian-American.”
One: the character is cast white and it keeps the same racist orientalist lens it always had, or two: the character is cast Asian and does precisely fuck all to advance the type of roles that Asian actors get in American film and further essentialize how Asian characters are viewed within the superhero genre.
When I look at the conversation around Jessica Jones, it’s largely been hemmed into how much the wider culture needs stories that confront rape and intimate partner violence, which, is valid to a point, but is by no means the whole of the conversation around the series. When I first started writing about comics a decade ago, and trying to impact the way people looked at them, rape was everywhere to the point that it was beyond nauseating. Around that time, Kevin Smith wrote a rape into Black Cat’s past that reoriented her entire motivation for being a catburglar behind it. It was right around then that Kate Bishop’s backstory was rewritten to involve her being raped, and hell, even Dick Grayson got raped within a year or two of the other examples.
From my perspective, I’ve been railing against the perception in superhero fiction that women need to be raped or otherwise experience intimate partner violence in order to aspire to anything great for a decade. This past year I had to sit by while my favourite super hero, Kate Kane, got raped repeatedly in an identical context to what The Purple Man/Kilgrave did to Jessica, then have her own twin sister gaslight her over it. So seeing Jessica Jones be chosen as the MCU’s first female driven narrative, making it the public face of how Marvel sees women’s narratives in this space made me sickened and distraught.
It terrifies me that someone thinks a story that revolves entirely around someone being kidnapped, raped repeatedly, and forced to commit a murder is aspirational.
Jules: Yes. I respect the aforementioned Albert Ching’s perspective. I even agree with some points he makes, especially the idea that the martial arts hero being the first Asian protagonist in the MCU can be seen as too stereotypical. However, there is such a dearth of decent Asian representation in the MCU that I cannot stand the idea that we have to lose this opportunity. We had Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin (sort of), we have Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One, and we have the complete mishandling of the Asian characters in Daredevil. Keeping Iron Fist white, retaining his “white saviour” backstory, dealing with the possibility of him killing even more Asian foes in the series, it all just gives me an enormous headache.
I can sympathise to an extent the idea that it only stereotypes us more when we have Asian people play martial arts experts, however that is such a core element to our culture and history, even with fictional handlings of those philosophies and practices. Is there more to Chinese people than kung fu? Yes! Can the same be said of Japanese people with karate as well as judo? Definitely. What about Indians and yoga? Of course. However to essentially strip us of any possibility that Asians as a whole can have heroes directly tied to our culture is more damning than us getting the chance at that sort of representation, even if it could end up being fumbled. I feel it’s us throwing out the baby with the bathwater before we’ve even turned on the faucet. It’s an argument in good faith, but there’s no getting around the idea that people who already have bigoted orientalist views on Asians have already made their minds up and for those who haven’t formed any opinions on that whatsoever, casting a white man as a martial arts master surpassing all others does more harm than any Asian representation ever could.
I also don’t want to limit the idea of Iron First being Asian American to just East Asian folks. There is a rich history to martial arts and its origins and developments across all of Asia, from India to Thailand to Korea to the Philippines as well as Indonesia.
A lot of the arguments I’ve seen that disagree with the idea of Iron Fist being Asian American really generalise and flatten the complexity of that identity and how that could help make a character quite strong narratively-speaking and what that character could stand for in a societal sense. Not all Asian folks know how to use chopsticks, speak their native tongue, read their own language, know their own customs, or have even visited where their family is from. And no, not all of them know martial arts. However having a major property owned by a major company produced and distributed by a major entity depict an Asian character dealing with all of that and maybe even learning some of those things is better than playing it “safe” and keeping him white, after all these decades. Casting Iron Fist as Asian isn’t the end of it, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Desiree: I’m in complete agreement with Jules. I can understand what Emma and Ching are saying, this situation is certainly a double edged sword. However, I’d rather see a character reclaiming their cultural identity than seeing a white man inheriting it.
I’d rather see a character reclaiming their cultural identity than seeing a white man inheriting it.
So really, I don’t see how leaving Danny Rand white would be avoiding any problematic implications that his character currently holds. It certainly wouldn’t be perfect, but it’d be better than what the MCU currently offers. Plus it’d be nice to see one more person of color on the MCU Defenders team, since right now it’ll be three white people — if they go with the obvious choice of a white male actor named Chris for Danny — and one person of color, Luke Cage.
Jamie: I would prefer a biracial Asian American Danny Rand. I also keep in mind that Marvel is more aware of racial issues now. They pulled a switch in Iron Man 3 in order to get around the 1950s-1960s view of China and Japan as the “yellow peril.” I can’t say I’m ready to trust them to get it right, but they know they need to do better. But my thinking falls more in line with Jules than aught else. They could and should take the step. Tradition and fanboy ire should not guide the decision. Being a company that wants to move forward, and do better than they have in their history, and being known for true diversity and true antiracism is in their monetary best interests, really. ( As for aspirational: I think it’s Jessica Jones growing past the damage, learning to trust, overcoming the harm that her past has done to her that’s aspirational, and I hope that’s what Loeb really meant.)
We’re living in a time where movies like Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai just don’t fly any more; the “white saviour” cannot and should not exist.
