Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick Break Down Those Intense ‘Iron Fist’ Fights

Iron Fist is back on Netflix and deadlier than ever. After a rocky start last year, Season 2 of Marvel’s martial arts superhero series now has fight scenes that live up to the Immortal Iron Fist’s in-universe reputation. The choreography is inventive, the pacing is tighter, and the mood is more in-your-face than ever. These fight scenes that not only inform character motivations and kick the storytelling up a notch, they’re also fun as hell to watch.

All that comes courtesy of fight coordinator Clayton Barber, who jumped on board for Iron Fist Season 2 fresh after bringing his eye for mayhem to Black Panther. Whereas series lead Finn Jones had to learn his fights at a breakneck pace for Season 1, the actor told us in our interview with him and co-star Jessica Henwick that they fixed that this time around.

“This season, we had a lot more lead up time before we started filming,” said Jones. “I started training back in August, about five months ahead of schedule ,and then we had about a month and a half with the stunt team to learn specific choreography, so just a lot more time.”

That extra time and care pays off, big time. In talking about Season 2, Jones and Henwick revealed all the work that goes into putting together these complicated brawls–work that involves cardboard ladles, Jackie Chan movies, and angry Mets fans. And warning: some light spoilers ahead!

Subway Showdown (204: “Target: Iron Fist”)

After stalking Danny Rand for episodes as both Mary and Walker, Alice Eve’s relentless gun-for-hire makes her move against the Iron Fist. She ambushes him in a subway station and does what she was paid to do: beat the crap out of him. Iron Fist has met his match, which makes this fight scene different from the ones we’ve seen before.

Jones: [Fights are] always approached with story and character first, and all the fights this season–it’s like, well, how can we make the fight look really cool and how can we tell a story? What is the story to this fight? So every fight is different. With that fight scene, where Alice’s character beats me up, it’s because she has been watching me for a long time. She studied my moves, she knows what’s coming so she is able to have the upper hand. She injects me [with a tranquilizer], so I’m playing the wooziness. So there are all those elements that come into it of character and story.

The scene used a real train station, part of New York City’s PATH system, that was alarmingly active when they filmed the fight.

Jones: We were shooting on a Friday night and there was a Mets game that finished so there were a bunch of drunk fans coming and heckling us on the side of the tube, or the subway. One of them heckled and you should have seen Alice. Alice like ripped into them. I can’t even remember [what she said] but some guy gave it and she just gave it ten times back, like way harder across the platform. She was amped from the fight and I guess she was a little bit in character still.

Tattoo Parlor Tussle (206: “The Dragon Dies at Dawn”)

With Danny Rand recovering, Colleen Wing and Misty Knight team up to figure out what was done to him. Their trail leads them to a trio of tattoo artists–tattoo artists that are way more than they seem. While Misty takes out one, Colleen goes up against the other two.

Henwick: I was really pumped for [this fight] because at the top of the show, Colleen is not really fighting that much. She doesn’t want to fight, she has put up her katana, won’t carry it around New York any more. So there was a good month or two of filming where I was like, “I haven’t done a single frickin’ fight scene! I’m bored!” And that was kind of the turning point where she gets into things.

Not only does Colleen get into things, but you can clearly see Henwick executing all of her dangerous moves. That’s a running theme throughout Season 2–fight scenes where you can tell the actors are doing all their own stunts.

Jones: [Fight coordinator] Clayton Barber was very adamant this season that all the fight scenes were done by the actors. All of them. I mean there are doubles as well to help us out, but the majority of the fights were done by the actors. So they would make sure there was enough prep time or rehearsal time to get the actors together to repeat, repeat, repeat so then when we got on set it was like second nature.

Cutthroat Kitchen (201: “The Fury of Iron Fist”)

Danny and Colleen’s date night gets interrupted when a street gang strolls into the kitchen, looking to stir up trouble. Making matters worse, a rival gang arrives and threatens to make an even bigger mess. While Colleen mixes it up in the kitchen, Danny hangs back outside and tries to delay the other bad guys.

Finn Jones: My half of the fight was our first day. That was our first day of filming Season 2 and then your fight was a little later, in a studio.

Jessica Henwick: No, it was a real kitchen, because we needed them to cook and stuff and steam to come out.

Jones: Yeah, we trained for that in pre-production, up to when we started shooting and it was great! We had a really good stunt team this year, really professional, great people to work around.

Colleen’s half of the fight makes great use of the surroundings, with all sorts of utensils coming into play.

Henwick: In the training room where we learn the fights, the stunt guys spend hours making the props. They make their own little makeshift props so you can practice with it. So I had a cardboard ladle and a cardboard pot. And then when we get to set, we see the props team has changed everything. So yes, I do get to practice with stuff but it’s always different on the day.

Jones: you do all the practice stuff and then you get to the day and you’re like, “Oh this stick that I’m fighting with is like five inches bigger.”

Henwick: I watched some old Jackie Chan stuff because he uses a lot of props and he is always finding really genius ways… like he has got fight scenes on ladders and fight scenes on bamboo poles and fight scenes on scaffolding. So with that kitchen fight, there were moments I would ask the stunt team, “What would Jackie do? He picks up this pan, what would he do?” It’s a different style of fighting in that it’s fun. That’s what Jackie is so good at. He is the everyman, just getting attacked on all sides and it’s fun, and that’s what we wanted with that Episode 1 fight.

You can stream all of Iron Fist Season 2 right now on Netflix.

Stream Marvel's Iron Fist on Netflix