Finn Jones’ ‘Iron Fist’ Role Inspires Him To Study Martial Arts, Buddhism
Finn Jones says his upcoming Iron Fist role has given him the inspiration to go beyond simply putting on a mask prior to his eventual team-up with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage in The Defenders. The Game of Thrones actor has said he’s learning about martial arts and Buddhism to prepare himself for as authentic a performance as possible.
Iron Fist is a Marvel superhero much like the rest of the heroes of Hell’s Kitchen, who originally didn’t have any special abilities. He traveled to China, where his family was killed, and ended up in another dimension where he learned how to fight and emerged as a gifted fighter. He was so gifted, in fact, that he surpassed the abilities of his teachers and uses his natural Chi to make his martial arts fighting skills more devastating than usual.
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When Finn Jones’ Iron Fist officially hits Netflix in 2017 after Luke Cage, he will be at least trained physically and mentally for the role. It’s doubtful that the Chi effects in his fighting will be real, but he won’t be faking it, he revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly via Reddit.
“I’ve always dreamed of a role that bridged spiritual discipline and badass superhero. There’s a contradiction in those elements that’s going to be very fun to play.”
It is true that between Buddhism and martial arts fighting styles, there is a real contradiction. Buddhism is a belief which states that violence is never an answer, despite the number of kung fu actors who have played characters versed in it. Martial arts themselves are actually a form of mental discipline, and the fighting styles are simply a physical necessity once needed in wars in the East.
IRON FIST Actor FINN JONES Training in Martial Arts and Buddhism for Marvel Role – https://t.co/goaOfHPbFF pic.twitter.com/4YIWBa5H6N
— My Comic Planet (@MyComicPlanet) April 8, 2016
Iron Fist star Finn Jones says that he’s studying “kung fu and wushu mixed with a bit of tai chi” and doing some extensive weight training so he’ll look right for the role.
Unlike Captain America and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Finn won’t be able to get away with looking scrawny at the beginning. Of course, in those films, Chris Evans and Tobey Maguire were given CG enhanced bodies to make them look skinny, so when they became their superhero alter egos, the transformation to their actual bodies would be noticeable.
Iron Fist is currently in pre-production, so Finn Jones will have some time to bulk up for the role so he won’t look out of place next to Daredevil’s Charlie Cox and Luke Cage and Jessica Jones’ Mike Colter. In the comics, Iron Fist was known to be relatively skinny, yet muscular, as he was a product of Hollywood’s kung fu craze. When Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris made the fighting styles popular, there was a flood of similar films and characters.
It’s unknown if the upcoming Netflix series will begin with Danny Rand’s trip to China, or if his backstory will be told through flashbacks like CW’s Arrow.
The official synopsis reads, “After his family meets a tragic fate while on expedition in China, a young Rand is adopted by the people of the mystical lost city of K’un-Lun, where he’s taught a magical fighting style. Years later, he returns to New York to fight crime.”
Are you excited to see Finn Jones as Iron Fist in 2017?
[Photo by Karwai Tang/Getty Images]
