We need to talk about Iron Fist. I know what you’re thinking.

“Why does it matter that a white actor was casted in a role intended for a white male to play?”

In a time riddled with wars over adversity, there is a massive missed opportunity on Marvel’s part to create a role for an Asian American character to be the first on screen representation of a culture that this comic line is derived from.

So let’s get into the gritty of it. Would casting an Asian American change the entire story line of Iron Fist? One of my fundamental problems with comic turned cinematic interpretation is the fact that story lines get convoluted and changed. That being said, we are living in a time where a single line of dialogue could “potentially” make this problem null. I am referring to the “They’re genetic experiments” not mutants line in Age of Ultron. Granted, this is a problem because of licensing and not story lines written as lore obstruction. Do not fundamentally change who these characters are. I said the same thing when Michael B Jordan was casted as Johnny Storm. As long as you don’t screw with the relationships the character has and who he is a person, by all means, please cast him. Though the film was a flop, I feel that Johnny Storm was written exactly as his history had proved him to be: a show-stopping, loyal, hot head. So let’s talk about what would change if Daniel Rand was Asian American. Would there be a loss of allure to a privileged white New York City socialite discovering a different culture that helped him understand things about his own? Only if you’re looking at race in that facet. What if Rand was a bi-racial Asian American? What if Wendell Rand or Heather Duncan were of Asian decent? What if the concept of learning a martial art is a connection to part of his culture that he needs to learn himself in lieu of his parent’s deaths? I feel like this interpretation would not lose sight of the major story arcs and would have created a great Segway for us to see the first Asian American superhero.

“But, what about the stereotype of an Asian person playing the martial artist?”
This is an extremely valid point. I took to speaking to some Asian American friends in how they would feel about being represented in a stereotypical fashion. One of my friends in particular is a martial artist and an actor, so his opinions and ideas weighed pretty heavy on the subject. In our conversation we broke down the typical presence that Asian culture has in cinema, and it’s just about non-existent. “If you’re auditioning for a role you’re either going to play a thug, and IT guy, or a martial artist.” We see this time and time again and roles that were written for people of Asian descent are completely white washed. We’ll use Emma Stone in Aloha for instance. The role was clearly written for a biracial Asian person to play, and it was given to Emma. The Last Air Bender film, completely white washed. If we want to make a serious hypothesis, a very white Hope Van Dyne will be playing Wasp. What is going on here? This got me thinking, “Is it only Hollywood?” With a quick google search of “Asian Comic Characters” I find a list longer than 100 names long of character’s indigenous to different areas of the world. So why is it that none of them have been featured? Why is it that I haven’t seen an Asian actor portraying any of these names? So here is my long-winded point. Would it be better to suffice the stereotype to possibly Segway into more of a presence? Or should there be no presence at all?

Then there is the issue of if Finn Jones was the best fit for the role. That is a very big possibility. None of us really know what goes on behind the scenes of the auditioning process. It’s a very real idea that Jones put on the best performance and was literally made to play the role of Daniel Rand. However, I’m hard pressed to believe that there were not at least a handful of Asian American actors who were also talented enough to portray this role. In the core of me, I want to believe that there were dozens of them in that casting room waiting to read for this part. However, were they a presence at casting at all? Or were they, like many other actors before them, drifted off to the side for the other roles incorporated in this show?

I think there is a lot to consider here. Why is it that Asian culture is being segregated into typecasting? Why is it that in an age of color blind casting that I have still yet to see an Asian presence in cinema? I feel as though the comic space would be a fantastic place to start. There are incredibly strong Asian leads littered all over pages that I have ingested and loved. Barbara Caine, Ryan Choi, OMAC, Karma, Wasp. Why are these characters not featured? If these comic lines have had undertones of battling adversity through ages, why is it in a time of necessity for these voices to be heard, that producers are white washing them out? It would speak volumes to feature them, and I feel like Marvel really dropped the ball on this one.