Ok, so we explored this topic a little bit in the latest episode, but the more and more I think about it the more I’m not sure what the issue is.By blaming the actor you are essentially saying one of 2 things. He/She is either a really bad actor and shouldn’t be acting, or that the actor made a bad choice for the part and it doesn’t fit with my ideal version of the character. But if Finn Jones was a”bad actor” I don’t think he’d ever get the role in the first place. As for making poor choices, I need to ask where was the director and editor in those cases? The first time Finn Jones was a bit over emotional or over the top, why didn’t anyone step in and tell him to tone it down a bit? Because this was what the writer wanted from the character. This was how Danny Rand was written in the Iron Fist series.

I feel a lot of this actually comes down to the writing, and possibly the direction he is being given. And I’m going to use an example of another actor badly portraying a superhero to help demonstrate my point. Henry Cavil as Superman. Henry Cavil is not universally loved as Superman and the biggest complaint I usually here is that he’s too brooding and not charming enough. Is that the actor’s fault? If it’s Cavil’s fault that would mean he doesn’t know how to be charming, but nothing could be further from the truth. And the best example to point to for that is The Man from Uncle. In the movie Cavill plays the very charming, Napoleon Solo and does an amazing job at it. Watching this film made me even more angry at the Man of Steel movie because it was proof that the tone of the film was all Snyder’s doing. But I digress, now let’s take a look at Finn Jones and Iron Fist.

If we take a look at Finn Jones in Iron Fist vs Defenders I see 2 different Finn Jones. In Iron Fist Danny Rand is a character caught between the idealized life he was ripped away from when he was a child and the life where he was raised by monks and trained to be the defender of K’un-Lun. And while he struggles with this emotional tug of war in his head he seems to revert back to that little kid on occasion, which in a way, becomes annoying after a while.

But in Defenders I feel we get a very different Danny Rand. He now seems to be a warrior fighting a war against the Hand. His biggest flaw being he was raised by monks in hidden city and is socially awkward in our modern world. The worst scene in Defenders was when Danny goes alone into the Midland Circle boardroom to confront the hand, but that is not an acting choice that’s in the script for him to be stupid. But if you look into the Chinese restaurant scene Danny comes off as confident. He’s the one that sees the potential in them being a team and he almost feels like a leader to the band of misfits. And dare I say even comes off as charming when interacting with the team, especially Luke Cage, which is laying the ground work for their friendship.

So in conclusion. I’m not saying Finn Jones is completely blameless for Iron Fist, but I believe he’s a much better actor than people are giving him credit for. You really need to scrutinize the writing and directing on this one. And hopefully after they have the character spend time as a defender of New York they will write him as a more mature character, but only time will tell.

For more on my thoughts on Iron Fist check out this week’s Super Hero Speak: http://superherospeak.com/wp/222-three-heroes-and-an-iron-fist/