Marvel’s ‘Iron Fist’ Episode Titles And Directors Revealed

Marvel’s fourth Netflix series, Iron Fist, is set to debut in March. As that month gets closer, more previously-unknown details are finally coming out, including episode titles and directors, as well as some insight into Danny Rand’s music tastes.

Earlier this week, CBR gave a near-complete list of Iron Fist episode titles as well as a partial list of directors. Currently, there are four episodes lacking an attached director, while two episodes (10 and 12) are also without title.

This is possibly a strategy meant to conceal some of the plot details of the show from fans of the comics, as well as intrepid Googlers. Iron Fist star Finn Jones stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Marvel was immensely more secretive than the show he previously worked on, HBO’s Game of Thrones — a series notorious for fighting against potential spoilers due in small part to the show having surpassed its source material.

The episode titles seem to be doing a good job of hiding details already, though. The titles all fit a certain structure; each one shoots for about four words, and they are clearly meant to imitate Buddhist sayings, mirroring the religion’s influence on Iron Fist.

Curiously, two of the episodes also have U.K. rating warnings attached to them. Episode 7, “Felling With Tree Routes,” has a “Rated 18 for strong bloody violence” label, while episode 11, “Lead Horse Back To Stable,” is “Rated 12 for mild violence.” The Marvel Netflix series are no strangers to violence, especially given the specific nature of Luke Cage’s unbreakable powers, but it’s interesting that only those two episodes have explicit warnings attached.

The ratings come from CBR‘s source, Bleeding Cool, which pulled the episode titles and directors from Britain’s censorship board.

Today, a new revelation regarding the missing directors was made. CBR, reporting on a Facebook Q&A with Finn Jones, notes that Jones named Wu-Tang Clan member RZA as the director of Episode 6. Jones was discussing Iron Fist‘s musical influences, saying that Danny Rand (Iron Fist’s civilian identity) was heavily influenced by early ’90s hip-hop, including Jurassic 5, A Tribe Called Quest, and Wu-Tang Clan.

Music also played a big role in Marvel’s previous Netflix series, Luke Cage. That show’s episode titles were all named after Gang Starr songs, and the show’s score was top-to-bottom hip-hop as well.

Wu-Tang and Iron Fist are a natural fit for each other, as both are heavily influenced by Asian culture. GZA’s 1995 album, Liquid Swords, was even built around the dialogue and atmosphere of the 1980 samurai film Shogun Assassin.

RZA has some experience in filmmaking as well; in addition to acting in several films over the years (as well as the Showtime series Californication), the Wu-Tang Clan member also co-wrote, acted in, and directed a martial arts film titled The Man With The Iron Fist, released in 2012. Amusing title coincidences aside, RZA’s experience in making that film should transfer well to Iron Fist, a martial arts series set in New York.

There are still a couple of directors missing from the list. Notably, there is still no confirmation on whether Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik is directing an episode. Rumors of the director’s involvement were kicked off on the internet by MCU Exchange, who noted that the Emmy-winning director of Game of Thrones Season 6‘s penultimate episode was listed as the director for Episode 4 on the notoriously unreliable Internet Movie Database, or IMDb.

There is still a remote possibility that Sapochnik is the director of Episode 4, as that is one of the episodes for which the director is currently unknown. The directors that are actually listed are definitely exciting, though. The first two episodes of the series are directed by John Dahl, director of the cult 1980 neo-noir film Kill Me Again; Kevin Tancharoen, brother of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. co-showrunner Maurissa Tancharoen, is directing Episode 8, titled “The Blessing Of Many Fractures.”

Marvel’s Iron Fist debuts on Netflix in March, 2017.

[Featured Image by Craig Barritt/Getty Images]