Critics have been savaging Iron Fist, the latest Netflix series based on a Marvel Comics character, but star Finn Jones appears to have a theory about why it’s gotten such terrible reviews — and it’s all down to the show’s parallels with the political rise of President Donald Trump.
After making its first six episodes available for critics, Iron Fist has been called slow, boring, and even “Marvel’s first big failure.”
Jones, who stars as billionaire New York businessman Danny Rand — who becomes the titular hero “Iron Fist” — has previously addressed critics’ complaints with the series, but offered up a new theory in an interview this week with RadioTimes.
The 28-year-old actor noted that the profile of his “white American billionaire superhero” character is too similar to that of Donald Trump, and that has been off-putting for liberal, Trump-hating television critics.
“I think the world has changed a lot since we were filming that television show,” Jones said. “I’m playing a white American billionaire superhero, at a time when the white American billionaire archetype is public enemy number one, especially in the US.”
“We filmed the show way before Trump’s election, and I think it’s very interesting to see how that perception, now that Trump’s in power, how it makes it very difficult to root for someone coming from white privilege when that archetype is public enemy number one,” the actor insisted.
The latest Netflix-Marvel offering already faced attacks from social justice warriors who have claimed the lead character has been “whitewashed” with the casting of a white actor instead of an Asian-American actor, even though the comic book character was always white. The comics told the story of a white man, Rand, who went to the Orient to learn a secret style of martial arts that allows him to summon a mystical force known as the “Iron Fist.” But those criticisms aside, the first six episodes were not well received by critics.
This isn’t the first excuse Jones has offered for attacks by media critics. In an earlier interview with Britain’s Metro, Jones insisted that critics do not understand the show because it has been produced “for the fans,” and not critics.
“I also think some of the reviews we saw were seeing the show through a very specific lens, and I think when the fans of the Marvel Netflix world and fans of the comic books view the show through the lens of just wanting to enjoy a superhero show, then they will really enjoy what they see,” he added.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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