K'un L'un is in another dimension and, at least going by the comics, the residents are Human Aliens, much like the Asgardians in the MCU. Perhaps K'un L'un could be one of the realms connected to Midgard.
- Nothing of that sort is mentioned.
It is already speculated that Gao is from K'un L'un or one of the other Seven Capital Cities of Heaven due to her claim that she speaks all languages, is from a land farther away than China, and produced heroin with the symbol of the Steel Serpent (a villain in the Iron Fist comics). One should expect her to show up at some point.
- It's most likely Gao will end up being Crane Mother, who became Steel Serpent's master.
- Confirmed. She appears in the latest trailer.
Obviously he wouldn't be Fu Manchu, but an international crime lord as in the Ultimate universe. Shang-Chi, the crime lord's American born son, combats his father's minions in Chinatown, which is where he'll meet Iron Fist.
- Nothing so far.
Professor Lee Wing, a character in the comics, will be one of Danny's allies in New York City. His presence will open up the possibility of Colleen Wing to appear in a potential second season for the show. If she isn't already set to be in the first season anyway.
- Coleen Wing is already cast so it's possible that Professor Wing will show up too or sooner.
- No appearance in Season 1.
As a way of throwing a bone towards the fans who wanted an Asian-American Danny Rand, Shang-Chi will be a Chinese-American residing in Chinatown or something. Furthermore, he could have actual Ki Manipulation and character similar to Hickman's retcon/writing
- But isn't Shang-Chi usually Asian-British?
- Not really; he got espionage training from MI-6 but it's never stated that he's half-British. Not to mention the Ultimate universe's Shang-Chi was Chinese-American, so they can pick out things like they did with some of the Avengers.
- But isn't Shang-Chi usually Asian-British?
- No appearance in Season 1.
Making him a foil to Rand, who was born outside of K'un-Lun and immigrated there as a child.
- No Shang-Chi in Season 1.
As a sort of Casting Gag for when he was considered playing Iron Fist in a proposed live-action movie.
- No appearance in Season 1.
They can't use Fu Manchu since they don't have the rights, but the Mandarin is an Expy of him. Plus, it would give them the opportunity to follow up on All Hail the King, seeing as there doesn't seem to be plans for more Iron Man movies.
- No Shang-Chi in Season 1.
After all the stuff going on with the debate over if Danny should have been white, it would look pretty suspect if his predecessor as Iron Fist was a white dude as well. So Orson will become an Asian-American in order to keep the Mighty Whitey implications from getting too ludicrous.
- It's unlikely they would use Randall this early on. Not to mention there are several other older former Iron Fist they could use instead.
- I think the Original Poster meant if he appears eventually, not necessarily the first season. It does say "If" after all.
- It's unlikely they would use Randall this early on. Not to mention there are several other older former Iron Fist they could use instead.
- No appearance in Season 1.
- He will have kung fu skills but will wear a suit and favor firearms to avoid Marvel's fears of "stereotyping" an Asian character as a martial artist.
- Which would be a complicated, but fantastic Shout-Out since he was originally based on Bruce Lee, and this was one of Lee's rejected ideas for Enter the Dragon.
- No Shang-Chi in Season 1.
- No Shang-Chi in Season 1.
- No appearance in Season 1.
- Jossed.
- Either as someone who is passed over the title of Iron Fist and resents Danny for it and tries to kill him but fails, only to emerge for The Defenders as a new member of The Hand as he was in the comics.
- Jossed.
- Jossed; according to Scott Buck the costume won't appear.
- Early reviews of the first six episodes neither confirm a Shang-Chi appearance, nor sound positive enough to drown out any complaints his absence could cause.
- It probably won't be Lying Creator since Marvel never actually announced it; it was a rumour that got steam after Finn Jones was cast but was never officially confirmed.
- No Shang-Chi in Season 1.
- Confirmed on both points!
- Jossed.
- Alternately, they're actors hired to play the Meachums. (Is that meme dead yet?)
- Yes.
- Even more alternately, they will actually be Zendaya.
- OP: Please, no more Zendaya crap jokes.
- Jossed.
- Killian: Now, Extremis harnesses our bioelectrical potential and it goes here. This is essentially an empty slot and what this tells us is that our mind, our entire DNA, in fact, is destined to be upgraded.
- Jossed.
- Though possible due to the negative publicity Finn Jones is bringing, its not likely they could get away with casting an Asian-American actor if just because it would be jarring-as-fuck for him to be white for one season then suddenly Asian the next, which might not sit well even with people who want an Asian Danny. The only possible way they could get that to work would probably be if they have the films invoke a Cosmic Retcon during Infinity War, and allow all the shows a chance to retcon some shit.
- Come on, there's gotta be a few people sick of this.
- He will appear in a single episode, work with Iron Fist on something involving his supervillain father or maybe something with The Hand, and then go off to do his own thing, with a bigger role in the second season.
- No Shang-Chi in Season 1.
Due to the series' early negative reviews and being Overshadowed by Controversy due to its Mighty Whitey trope, Danny will be killed off fighting the Big Bad in the Defenders.
- Unlikely - The Defenders was written and filmed before Iron Fist premiered.
Actually possible, as something like that did happen in the comics; Immortal Iron Fist, which modernised Danny, largely got around the iffy racial issues by focusing so much on developing Danny's predecessors and introducing the (mostly Asian) other Immortal Weapons.
Similar to Phase 3 of the films being the first to feature black and female leads after complaints of too many White Male Lead characters. Thanks to the negative publicity of Iron Fist and its treatment of Asian culture, post-Defenders they'll have actual effort to better treat Asian characters, as well as increase their diversity.Possible spin-offs for Elektra and Colleen Wing, a solo series for Shang-Chi and maybe Kamala Khan getting a show, introduce the Immortal Weapons, Daredevil downplaying the Yellow Peril trope, among others. Similarly, they might see shows for Hispanic characters like Angela Del Toro (who had been namedropped in Jessica Jones), and Jewish characters like Moon Knight, in order to broaden the scope of scope a bit more.
- Possibly Confirmed. If she wasn't throwing up a smokescreen to downplay her status, she was talking about Alexandra.
- Jossed. She's human, although she does have ties to dragons. Their biological matter sustains her immortality.
- Jossed, although the end of the last episode suggests he's been training under somebody — and it's apparently not Orson Randall.
In their conversation at the park by the river in the eighth episode, Joy says to Ward, "When was the last time we talked about anything other than work? Can you name the last person I dated? I have...I just have no idea who you've been seeing, or what you've been reading, or...anything about your life outside of Rand. We didn't used to be like this. One day, you just put up a wall and I never understood why." To which Ward replies, "I was protecting you."
Ward's remark that Harold has always been a bastard to him is true. But it stands to reason that Harold didn’t start the explicit physical abuse until Ward was older. Joy’s dialogue seems to indicate that she and Ward were close after she started working at Rand (at 18 years old, probably, or maybe later after she went to college). Ward is 5-6 years older than Joy, about the same as the age gap between Tom Pelphrey and Jessica Stroup, so the abuse probably didn’t start happening until Ward was at least 23-24.
And then Ward pushed her away “one day.” That day was when Harold began to abuse him (or maybe the abuse reached a whole other level). Ward didn't push Joy away when Harold came back from the dead, but much later. (It certainly doesn’t sound like they’ve been estranged for the past 13 years, so it must have been more recent, given they're still talking to each other while at work.) Ward didn’t push Joy away because Harold came back from the dead and she needed to be protected from the Hand, but because Harold began to abuse him, and Ward didn’t want her to find out.
- Jossed. She can do many things with her chi, but she was never an Iron Fist. She was a healer who went evil in a quest for immortality.
- Well, it's definitely improved, but Danny still doesn't own a razor.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed.
- Jossed. She's still a detective at the end of Luke Cage season 2. Although the name Knight-Wing is teased.
- That may prove to be kind of derivative. Maybe they could subvert it by having Shang-Chi or even another martial artist hero (on the off-chance that Shang-Chi might appear in the movies or something someday) appear as a unambiguously heroic character who is The Ace and makes Danny feel inadequate.
- Sadly jossed, but the ending suggests that they may be heading that way in season 3.
- Jossed. Both shows were renewed for second seasons.
- Jossed. Danny has a costume of sorts but it doesn't resemble Matt's original costume.
- If Hogarth does make a deal with the villains, they will instead use this opportunity to manipulate her into leading Danny into a trap and murder her after she has served her purpose to them, with one of them revealing a way she could have cured herself as they do they do so.
- Jossed. Hogarth does not appear this season.
- Jossed. There's no sign of the Hand, and Mary is just a somewhat troubled mercenary.
- Jossed.
- Confirmed. Although, despite the trailer's implications, the corpse was not underground.
- Jossed for the most part. The corpse wasn't underground and there's no indication he was the one to close the gate.
Ward pointed this out twice. The first was in episode 4 as everyone was getting ready for the press conference to announce Danny's return. Ward confronts Joy and says he knows she went behind his back to help Danny regain his inheritance with the old pottery bowl, saying, "Danny's always been a soft spot to you." In the previous episode Ward had been going through great lengths to destroy any documents or pieces of evidence that would identify Danny as the rightful heir to Rand Enterprises. What Ward didn’t count on was the old piece of pottery Danny made for Joy when they were kids containing his fingerprint. And when Joy denies her involvement, Ward deliberately throws her undisclosed feelings for Danny in her face. And her response is a silent stunned look just before Danny walks into the room. Plus, she even flirts a bit with him, much to Ward's consternation.
In the season 1 finale, while Joy was in the hospital, Ward visited her in the hospital and made an attempt to warn her about Harold. At this point his pleads are met with anger, frustration and impatience due to not only his 13 years of dishonesty but also in his indirect role in Joy getting shot (because he tried to make a deal with Bakuto). Joy, unwilling to believe how dangerous Harold is to her, is hardly in the mood to forgive or forget. So Ward makes a last ditch effort to get his sister to listen to him by once again using her soft spot for her childhood friend to state his case, tossing a newspaper with Danny’s face on the cover confirming that he is in fact being framed by Harold. This is the second time that Ward has confronted Joy about her affection for Danny. Feelings that she has neither denied or confirmed to having for him yet. Its just left up in the air as a small crumb for the future. But it makes sense that the writers are using Ward in this format as no one knows his sister like he does. They’ve been close their whole lives; the secret about Harold’s resurrection being the exception to never harboring any secrets from each other. If anyone would know the way Joy feels about Danny, it’s most definitely Ward.
In 1x09, Madame Gao spends the entirety of the episode being held captive in the dojo, and getting into Danny, Claire and Colleen’s heads. She suggests that Colleen has a few skeletons in her closet that could jeopardize her new relationship with Danny. Antagonistically, Gao also says to the ailing Colleen that not only are her and Danny meant to be on separate paths but that "Danny Rand belongs to someone else", and she's clearly not talking about the monks of K'un-L'un. Colleen doesn’t even really have a reaction to this which is also strange. She neither denies, refutes the assessment, or accuses Gao of spewing lies.
True the subtext in the particular scene can almost be interpreted to whatever the viewer imagines. But the "someone else" that Gao was referring to was probably Joy, given how good she is at reading people’s past, present and future via their auras in this show, in Daredevil, and in The Defenders. No doubt she’s seen inside Danny’s conflicted heart during all her interactions with him. Also at the very beginning of that same episode, Danny runs off to meet Joy in a short but pivotal scene, telling her to stay away from the building Ward has brought her to before disappearing, which later has her discovering Harold’s existence.
Another indication that Gao was referring to Joy when she said "Danny Rand belongs to someone else" is the fact that she had alluded to Miranda Randnote in 1x06 and 1x08. She cryptically informs Danny that Wendell was “not such an honorable man”. And of course there’s the moment in the last episode, where Gao is seen listening in on Joy and Davos’s conversation; two of Danny’s former best friends conspiring together against him. Why was she there? Is she working with Davos? Or was she keeping tabs on Joy knowing what she means to Danny? The only certainty is Gao has a hidden agenda.
Speaking of Davos, Davos sought out Joy to help him destroy his former comrade. He chose a woman he barely knows, someone close to Danny’s past, as a likely ally in his personal mission to gain the Iron Fist’s power. Really he could’ve gone to anyone but honestly manipulating Danny’s childhood friend against him is the perfect weapon. Not only does Davos condescendingly level with Joy about Danny not being the same person she knew growing up, he encourages her to get revenge reminding Joy that she felt her world fell apart when Danny resurfaced, using the very same words Joy says to Danny on the street in 1x09: "Everything fell apart once you showed up" / "Isn't it true your world fell apart after his return?" That was a deliberate writing parallel. Joy, ironically, doesn’t deny this replying “things changed for me” reaffirming she indeed believes Danny is the source of her pain. How would Davos know this? Or better yet, how would he know anything about Danny and Joy’s relationship unless Danny regularly talked about her while training in K'un-L'un? Davos would have to know about her to some extent in order to push the right buttons.
Then there's Colleen. Colleen is made aware of not only Joy’s past with Danny but also her undisclosed feelings for him. Colleen gets a front row seat to witness Joy’s reaction towards the M&Ms Danny sent back [as a test] from Birch Psychiatric. Joy cries out in tears at the realization that this is Danny Rand, and it's enough to sway Colleen. Originally she was skeptical about Danny, and was even tempted to take Ward’s offer. However this is the scene that convinces her his story is legit and quietly excuses herself out of the office without Joy knowing.
The next time Colleen and Joy interact is when Danny brings Joy to the dojo to hide her after the hatchet-men's attempt to snatch her. While they’re alone together, the two women begin bonding and Colleen curiously inquires about Joy and Danny’s past. To which Joy confesses their parents being best friends and even implies that she and Danny were betrothed to be married someday. Of coursed it's said with humor, but the subtext underneath indicates some truth to that assessment. Now think about Gao’s “Danny belongs to someone else” line. It's interesting that writers have already linked the phrase marriage towards Danny's connection with Joy, while Colleen is the person he is currently focused on.
Later, when Danny and Colleen are infiltrating the pier to track down the synthetic heroin, they share their first intimate moment together. As Danny looks deeply into Colleen’s eyes he confesses she is the only person he can trust as well as rely on. Surprisingly enough Colleen brings up Joy by name, and Danny stands silent wearing an inscrutable expression before he gives her a response which is very telling. She could’ve just left the Meachums out of the conversation but the fact that Colleen even acknowledges Joy being an important person to Danny emphasizes her insecurities about their relationship. She knows Joy harbors some kind of feelings for him based on the time she spent with her at the dojo as well as the M&M's scene. If this wasn’t an issue, Colleen wouldn’t have mentioned her and Danny would’ve denied it.
Other interesting details include Danny and Joy’s carefully color coordinated wardrobes. Including the fact that Joy has worn outfits entailing yellow and green as well as been placed in areas with yellow/gold and green [the Iron Fist’s colors] environments.
So about each of these references and encounters in season 1, they more so underline Joy’s affections for Danny as opposed to his for her considering his love story is currently with Colleen. And it makes sense that the writers did that since part of Joy’s arc was grappling with Danny’s reappearance and how it had affected her positively and negatively. It wouldn't be a surprise if season 2 ended up focusing on Danny’s feelings towards Joy this time around. And with all the angst built between them it seems a likely outcome. If these two characters aren’t going to end up as anything significant in the future than none of these plot points should matter. But they do.
This isn't to downplay Danny’s relationship with Colleen. Danny and Joy's relationship is very significant in the comics and highlighted pivotal in the show, in much the same way that Matt's relationship with Karen Page is handled in Daredevil. Yes they can go either way but I’d like to think all this "Ironjoy" build up they’ve had is leading to something more than the basic family or hero/villain aspect. Plus it's no secret that the creators might be setting the seeds for a Daughters of the Dragon spinoff with Colleen and Misty. There’s a reason Danny and Joy's relationship has been hanging out on the backburner while Ironwing is in full bloom, and it's the same reason Matt/Karen took a backseat to Matt/Elektra during Daredevil season 2 and The Defenders: it’s on slow burn. Things change and it looks as though there’ll be drastic changes happening for Danny and Joy in season 2. While many people think Danny and Joy are going to grow further apart, it's actually Danny and Colleen's relationship that's been slowly breaking down as a couple. In The Defenders, it was established that Colleen wanted more outside of her relationship with Danny and vice-versa for him. Whatever guilt Danny has about what happened to Matt at Midland Circle can't be helping either. It will culminate in an amicable split as both characters mature and come to grips with Claire's forewarning at the end of S1 of their relationship.
So between the comic book arc being used as inspiration for season 2, and later comic events as well as earlier TV setup, they are slowburning an "Ironjoy" relationship here that will be heavily implied if not established by S2's conclusion, kinda like Matt and Karen were in Daredevil. Because really, the Colleen/Danny/Joy dynamic is a modified version of the Elektra/Matt/Karen dynamic.
- If it's true, chances are that Davos will want that book himself. If only to help him take back the Iron Fist.
