Iron Fist Season 2 Costume Explained

Will there be an actual Iron Fist costume for Danny Rand in the new season? Um...maybe.

I don’t think I need to remind you that the first season of Iron Fist wasn’t particularly well-received by critics, well-loved by fans, or, well, very good. But the show has made a showrunner change (from Scott Buck to Raven Metzner), and the rehabilitation of Danny “I’m the immortal Iron Fist” Rand began almost immediately with The Defenders, and continued with a downright fun guest spot on Luke Cage Season 2.

And despite Danny’s abiding fondness for the green and yellow color scheme of his comic book attire, we have yet to see Danny in costume, or even a mask. Marvel and Netflix have been playing it coy about when we might see an actual Iron Fist costume since he first debuted. It’s possible that Iron Fist Season 2 will change that.

“The thing with all of these shows is not that we’re shy to bring the costumes,” Iron Fist star Finn Jones told us last year. “It’s that we want them to feel authentic when it does happen. Danny’s on this journey to understanding what his responsibility is. And throughout all of [Iron Fist] season 1, he was in no state of mind to put a suit on. That would’ve been ridiculous because he was not fully accomplished as the Iron Fist yet and he certainly didn’t have the right or the responsibility to be putting on a superhero costume. He needs to work his shit out.”

It’s still not clear if Danny will have worked “his shit out” by the time Iron Fist Season 2 ends, but at the very least we’re going to get a significant tease of the costume. The latest teaser for the new season depicts a fight…and there are masks involved. 

OK, so if you blinked and missed it, here it is…

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With the release of this teaser, the internet helpfully pointed out that perhaps this series isn’t doing itself any favors. But it turns out that this scene is likely a flashback to ceremonial combat of some kind in K’un-Lun, and Iron Fist Season 2 showrunner Raven Metzner and star Finn Jones gave reporters some context at SDCC.

“There’s a reason why in K’un-Lun those masks are worn,” Metzner says. “It’s the same reason that, to keep people anonymous when you’re fighting people you’ve know your whole life, you know? And we use that in interesting ways in the fight, in story, and we did a lot of research on actual ceremonial masks from many different cultures. We had our wardrobe team design that mask and filtered it through all these different versions of different masks that real people really wear for different ceremonial events. On top of that, the eye black is something that is used in football, it’s used in military, to keep the sun’s glare away, so you can do combat.”

And the other masked fighter in the scene? That’s returning potential villain, Davros. “Danny and Davros are brothers, they’ve been raised together, they have a very close connection. And in order for them to fight each other, they have to conceal their identities, so all they see is another fighter,” Jones explains. 

The show seems intent on making sure that if there is an Iron Fist costume at all, there will be a reason for it. “The same way Matt Murdock covers his eyes, and that mask evolved to protect his head, we built a story around why the masks needed to be in the story,” Metzner says.

So it seems extraordinarily unlikely Danny would wear one of these masks for “traditional” crimefighting, even if he gets a costume this season. Maybe Danny will go see Matt Murdock’s tailor, Melvin Potter, and have a more practical costume made if he decides to suit up.

Iron Fist Season 2 hits Netflix on September 7.

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