Marvel TV Boss on “Iron Fist” Showrunner Switch: “This Is the Next Chapter”

Netflix

IRON FIST was plagued with some criticism from fans and critics for its first season, but Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb does not see the introduction of a new showrunner for the show’s second season as a way to address or fix any particular issue.

“What happened, really very simply, was [Season 1 showrunner] Scott Buck was on [ABC Marvel series] Inhumans and we were delighted to get another order from Netflix and knew that Scott was not going to be available to us,” Loeb told Tracking Board. “We set out to find a new showrunner. Raven came in, told us a story and we thought, ‘that’s the next epic adventure for this character’ and got very excited about it.”

Former Sleepy Hollow executive producer Raven Metzner is taking over the reigns for Season 2 of the Netflix superhero drama starring Finn Jones.

Loeb likened the change to when a new comic book writer takes over on a title.

“When you look at something like Daredevil, which is easily accessible, if you ask people what’s your favorite Daredevil story? They go, well I’m a Frank Miller fan, or I’m a Brian Michael Bendis fan or I’m an Ed Brubaker fan,” he said. “Writers have come in and told their particular view of what that character could be. It was Frank who really looked at it and went, maybe he’s not a happy-go-lucky, plucky acrobat who’s running around, like a more mature version of Spider-Man. Maybe it’s a crime drama. And he changed the tone of that book. And then Bendis, he’s a crime writer, he took that and went to the next level. It’s not that we want the audience to get whiplash. It really does need to feel like this is the next chapter of what’s going to happen to Danny Rand and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Jones’ Iron Fist character next appears in The Defenders, which teams him up with Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones and Mike Colter’s Luke Cage. The Defenders drops on Neflix on August 18.

 Linda Ge | TV Editor