Yahoo News Iron Fist star wants an Asian-American superhero
Iron Fist has endured much backlash over casting a white actor (Finn Jones) in the lead role of Danny Rand instead of an Asian-American – but star Jessica Henwick believes it's only a matter of time before Marvel introduces another Asian-American superhero.
Asian-American under-representation on TV and film has been a major issue, and Marvel has been guilty of it – with Agents of SHIELD's Skye (Chloe Bennet) the only prominent superpowered character of note.
Iron Fist is a complicated topic. Although Danny Rand is white in the comics, many Marvel fans (including Digital Spy) had hoped an Asian-American actor would be cast to avoid the problematic and offensive white saviour narrative as well.
Henwick, who plays Iron Fist's sidekick Colleen Wing in the new Netflix series, admitted that joining the show wasn't an easy decision.
"It was a hard decision to make to join the show," she said on Entertainment Weekly: The Show. "Not because of the material or anything. But I'm part of the Asian community. I'm Asian. I'm an actor. If anyone understands the conversation, it's me. I've lived and breathed it.
"I would love to see an Asian-American superhero. And I think it's going to happen.
"There's something about fantasy and sci-fi that seems more welcoming of different ethnicities. It means that I've been presented with a lot of really cool opportunities."
So why did Henwick sign up for Iron Fist? It turns out that what won her over was the character of Colleen Wing.
"It was really Colleen Wing that sold it for me," she said. "I thought it was a good opportunity to see a really strong female Asian-American.
"She's not a superhero. She's just an ordinary person who has the guts to fight people with superpowers. Which I think is amazing!"
Henwick previously criticised a co-creator of the original Iron Fist comics after he had used the racially-insensitive word "Oriental" in an interview.
Iron Fist actually came pretty close to casting an Asian-American as Danny Rand, with Lewis Tan revealing that he was "on hold" for the part before it went to Finn Jones.
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