UPDATE: Marvel has made it official, confirming Jones as the new Danny Rand.“Finn wonderfully blends confidence with vulnerability, making him the perfect choice as he struggles to find his place in the world,” says Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb. “Now that we’ve found our Danny Rand, we’ve completed our principal cast for the upcoming Defenders on Netflix and we are thrilled to continue to show audiences unexplored corners of the Marvel Universe.”
The line-up for Marvel and Netflix's Defenders is now complete, at least casting-wise. Joining Charlie Cox's Daredevil, Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones and Mike Colter's Luke Cage we have Game Of Thrones' Finn Jones, who will be playing the lead in Iron Fist.
While the companies had no comment, the casting was uncovered by That Hashtag Show and later confirmed by Entertainment Weekly, and the choice of Finn seems in line with the usual description of the character as blue-eyed and blond-haired in the comic book, so Marvel is sticking to text this time, despite the hopes of some fans that the casting would be colourblind. Jones plays Loras Tyrell in Thrones, and will be back on our screens in the series this April.
Iron Fist, A.K.A. Danny Rand, dates back to the Bruce Lee-obsessed days of the early ‘70s. To borrow from Black Dynamite, it combines “scientific biological transmogrification” (he got a superfist by placing his hand in a molten dragon heart) with “kung-fu treachery” (his parents’ business partner Harold Meachum caused both their deaths when Rand was a nipper). Expect him to start out with revenge in mind, before new adversaries spring up around him.
In the series' story, he'll return to New York after vanishing for a few years, and sets like, much like his future compatriots, to use his powers for fighting crime in the city.
Scott Buck, who worked with Melissa Rosenberg on Jessica Jones and has previous experience on shows including Dexter and Rome, is a dyed-in-the-wool comic book nerd who will bring his obsessions to bear on the new series. Filming is scheduled to kick on in April, but there's no set date for the show to hit Netflix's streaming servers as of yet.