‘Iron Fist’: Should Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing Take Over From Finn Jones?

Season One of Marvel’s Iron Fist hit Netflix in the wee hours of the morning and it’s already a fighting an uphill battle against disappointed fans and sharp-toothed critics. I found some whimsical, campy charm in the first six episodes (which made me feel like I was watching the superhero version of Smash), but there are still a lot of issues with the show. The biggest one? Iron Fist himself, Danny Rand, is not the easiest hero to root for. He’s a sweet, but spoiled, child in a privileged man’s body. His martial arts moves are stilted and underwhelming. His biggest problem? No one believes he’s as rich and as powerful as he claims to be. He’s not exactly relatable.

To make things worse, actor Finn Jones‘s blustering PR campaign hasn’t helped sell him as a hero to the press. In the last few weeks, he’s quit and rejoined Twitter (after getting into a heated fight over representation with a critical fan), blamed the show’s negative reviews on Donald Trump’s win, and bizarrely boasted about not being a virgin. I’m not kidding about that last one.

Finn Jones is currently shooting Netflix’s big Marvel crossover event The Defenders. The show will finally tie the fates of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist together. It’s going to be a big deal and Finn Jones is locked in until the end. But what happens after that? So far, the Marvel shows on Netflix have been massive hits. Daredevil has a third season greenlit, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage are already confirmed for returns, and The Punisher got his own spin off. If Iron Fist fails to resonate with fans — and if Jones can’t summon enough chemistry with his Defenders co-stars to shift the tide on popularity — what then? Do you just forget all about Iron Fist? Or do you recast the character?

So, here’s the thing: Marvel has a pretty simple solution. They can keep the Iron Fist series alive without recasting Danny Rand or ditching everything they’ve established so far. They should make Iron Fist’s co-star and love interest Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) the next Iron Fist. I’m serious.

If there’s one searing, glowing, white hot bright light in Marvel’s Iron Fist, it’s Colleen Wing. Henwick plays her with a casual charm that hooks you in immediately. She runs a dojo in a rundown Chinatown building that offers a safe space for kids to learn martial arts. Her biggest enemy? Her dwindling bank account. She faces an all-too-familiar nightmare: How to make rent. To save her dojo, she breaks her own moral oaths and starts cage-fighting for money. To her thrill and disgust, she discovers that she kind of likes beating the bejesus out of men twice her size for cash. She’s a heroine teetering towards a dark path. It’s compelling stuff. And soon her life is intertwined with Danny Rand’s…

Colleen Wing is as close as we come to a brand new three-dimensional character in the first six episodes of Marvel’s Iron Fist. She’s endearing and inspiring and badass. She steals every scene away from her co-stars with the same ease and swagger of that viral toddler who crashed her dad’s BBC interview. She is, unlike Danny Rand, incredibly easy to root for. Plus, we watch as she grows stronger as she starts to assimilate some of Danny’s moves from K’un-Lun, the mystical paradise that forged Danny into the “Iron Fist.” Since Iron Fist is a title given to warriors — and not specific to Danny — Colleen Wing could easily become the next iteration of Iron Fist.

Transforming Colleen Wing into the next Iron Fist wouldn’t just inject a whole lot more spirit into the flailing series; It would solve Marvel’s tricky “whitewashing” problem. You see, Iron Fist was created in the ’70s. It was an era when the popularity of Kung Fu films were on the rise, but that hype translated to stories with white leading man with Asian stereotypes as sidekicks. Modern fans are torn between two camps: the purists who want to keep Danny Rand/Iron Fist white and blond (as he was on the page) and progressives who want Marvel to reimagine the character for the modern zeitgeist. If Colleen Wing took up the mantle of Iron Fist after Danny Rand, Marvel would find a way to please both groups. As a woman of Asian descent, Colleen Wing could help make the Defenders line up more racially diverse and more gender balanced. Which is good, you know, if you care passionately about that kind of thing.

Still, Finn Jones could prove us all wrong! Who knows? By the time Marvel’s The Defenders drops onto our Netflix queues, Danny Rand could become our favorite Netflix superhero. I’m actually rooting for this to happen because I want the complete series of Marvel’s Iron Fist to be good and I want Finn Jones to do a good job. Right now, though, it looks like Marvel might want to consider a back up plan — and Colleen Wing is right there in sight.

Season one of Marvel’s Iron Fist is now streaming on Netflix.

Stream Marvel's Iron Fist on Netflix