Will Netflix's "Iron Fist" Keep The Character's Mystical Elements?

[William300]

They already hinted at the mythical world with the Stick episode in Daredevil, so I'm sure they will keep those elements with Iron Fist.

[Beau Yarbrough]

I believe Madame Gao, the asian crimelord from Daredevil season one is from K'un L'un. She had an air of mystery and great power about her that bespoke of the supernatural. When asked where she was from, Gao said something to the effect of "somewhere VERY far away". Even the Kingpin feared and respected her.

Also look at the brand on the heroin she was selling.

[Tofali]

If they decide to do without the mysticism then only the comic fans of the character will be disappointed. They aren't that many anyway so it will be fine with whatever direction they take.

[Punisher007]

Marvel seems to have this weird hang-up when it comes to magic/mystical elements in the MCU:

-They were petrified of doing The Mandarin and his "magic rings," (even though they're actually alien tech not magic).
-They been quite wishy-washy with it in the Thor films (the whole "well magic is basically just super-advanced science" thing).
-They gave SW's powers and overtly "scientific" origin.
-Etc.

Given all of the other weird/out there comic book stuff that they've embraced in these movies, their hesitancy here has always been puzzling to me.

[wjowski]

They'd pretty much have to. It'd be like trying to remove the mystical elements of Dr. Strange.

[MP_SimonWilliams]

Man......it's the whole reason he's "IRON FIST"....for cripes sake.....it'd be like having Spider-Man be just a really good acrobat who was never bit by a radioactive spider....because that would be too far-fetched. What is wrong with these people sometimes? They find so much financial and mainstream success with the super-hero genre, but yet can't help themselves from falling back into Hollywood mode.

"Let's make an Iron Fist series.......but let's get rid of that campy Iron Fist part." It'd be laughable if it weren't under real consideration.

[JaggedFel]

I guess the Dragon Could blow the budget. Maybe the Cities could be FX heavy but Iron Fist is usually glowing fist, some healing, maybe some speed boosts and some mind tricks.

I do think Marvel was overly scared of Magic.

[Wellman]

If they wanted a street level marital artist, they should have just used Shang Chi.

But honestly outside of K'un L'un itself, none of the elements are THAT difficult that they couldn't make it work. It really just depends on how close they stick to the source material. Heck, in the series itself, they could easily gloss over K'un L'un and just have him be able to occasionally throw out uber destructive punches and kicks with vague mentions of where he got his powers or training from. The glowing fist is probably the biggest issue special effects wise because to make it look good in fights will be hard but even that can be handled.

I suspect the bigger issue is coming up with a solo story for Danny that would work on the same grit level they think they struck gold with Daredevil season 1. They are trying to make the shows fantastic but not too out there but the BEST Iron Fist stories in recent memory have all played up the martial arts fantasy.

Still wish they didn't co-opt the Defenders brand and would have just went with Marvel Knights or something.

[Cmbmool]

You can't have an Iron Fist series without its mystical origins. I would wait to see what Dr. Strange has planned before working on Iron Fist.

[Sighphi]

Marvel seems to have this weird hang-up when it comes to magic/mystical elements in the MCU:

-They were petrified of doing The Mandarin and his "magic rings," (even though they're actually alien tech not magic).
-They been quite wishy-washy with it in the Thor films (the whole "well magic is basically just super-advanced science" thing).
-They gave SW's powers and overtly "scientific" origin.
-Etc.

Given all of the other weird/out there comic book stuff that they've embraced in these movies, their hesitancy here has always been puzzling to me.

Religious people get mad at magic, they even hated Harry Potter.
So i guess Disney wants to maximize all potential profit.

As for IF, with DD they went "realistic" so im guessing they want to go the same route and they are trying to figure out how to not make it that magical that leaves the tone of the other series.

Given that they never really explained DD's powers, i dont think it would be too difficult to leave stuff out of IF to make it "realistic."

[The Cool Thatguy]

Religious people get mad at magic, they even hated Harry Potter.
So i guess Disney wants to maximize all potential profit.

As for IF, with DD they went "realistic" so im guessing they want to go the same route and they are trying to figure out how to not make it that magical that leaves the tone of the other series.

Given that they never really explained DD's powers, i dont think it would be too difficult to leave stuff out of IF to make it "realistic."

I don't think they're much worried about some religious nutjobs, so much as it's hard to have magic and science in the same shared universe and make them work. Magic by itself is hard to handle.

[Punisher007]

Except that it's NOT hard, at all. Both HP and LOTR both had magic as a major element in those stories, and were both massively successful. Heck even the Hobbit trilogy, whatever you may think of their quality as movies, were still massively successful financially. This shows us two things:

-The GA WILL accept magic in film if there's an internal logic to it.
-These types of films can be HUGE successes.

And the sense I get from reading/listening to some of Feige and co's past comments is that they simply don't know if the GA will "buy" magic as part of the MCU. So, they've been hedging their bets by being ambiguous about it. This attitude makes little sense in light of the reasons that I mentioned above, and the fact that they already want us to buy that the film with the talking, gun-toting space raccoon and the anthropomorphic tree exists in the same universe as the gritty street-level vigilante with a homemade costume and billy clubs. So magic in the MCU isn't that hard to buy given these facts.

[Iron Fist]

I don't see what's so hard, all they have to do is make K'un L'un a stationary place that doesn't move like it does in the comics, and make the dragon a humanoid. The rest of it is pretty simple adaptation, most of the magic is internal like regeneration etc and your only special effects should be on his flaming fists.

Daredevil showed us perfectly how it can be realistic but still mystical with madame gou, especially how she bitchslaps DD to the ground with one hit and vanishes into thin air. Just follow that tone.

[John Venus]

And the sense I get from reading/listening to some of Feige and co's past comments is that they simply don't know if the GA will "buy" magic as part of the MCU. So, they've been hedging their bets by being ambiguous about it. This attitude makes little sense in light of the reasons that I mentioned above, and the fact that they already want us to buy that the film with the talking, gun-toting space raccoon and the anthropomorphic tree exists in the same universe as the gritty street-level vigilante with a homemade costume and billy clubs. So magic in the MCU isn't that hard to buy given these facts.

I have yet to see Fiege and co. mention anything about the GA not being able to accept magic and I tend to spend way too much time trying to keep track of everything that Marvel does. At best, he seems to prefer a more scientific approach to the properties and the problem with magic is that it lacks any internal logic aside from 'it can do anything you want'. You are going to need some strict and clearly defined limits on what the characters can and cannot do. HP and LoTR didn't have to contend with having advanced alien beings and other weird **** exist in the same universe. I may have missed something but the general impression I got from Fiege is that he believes that you can sell the audience on anything so long as you sell it right.

Besides, Fiege is not involved in the tv shows aside from Agent Carter. Reportedly, he hasn't even seen the Daredevil show yet. TV is Jeph Loeb's arena so a different team involved.

Either way, we are all making too much noise over some rumors made by someone on in the internet with no official sources confirming or denying it. No way they green lit all these shows without having some idea on how they are going to execute them. One only needs to see how out there Iron Fist is compared to the other Marvel characters in order to get the rumor mill going.

[marvelprince]

This article is pretty much a non story. So they're exactly sure how they tell his story, and not sure how much vs. how little should be set in the "fantasy" world vs. the "real" world. The show is still years down the line, there's no cast and there's no crew. Lots of time to work it out.