Why are people calling Iron Fist a white saviour, and what does it mean?

Marvel’s latest Netflix drama Iron Fist released today – but it hasn’t been without controversy. For some time now, the show has been accused of falling into the white saviour narrative trope; from when the show was first announced, to the casting of Finn Jones as Danny Rand, and to the advance reviews, many people have focused on this complaint.

If you’ve been following the show at all, or you’re a fan of Marvel, you’ve probably heard about this. But what does it actually mean?

Here’s an article on Iron Fist, for the Metro.

(An important caveat – the above title is how I pitched the article to Metro. When the article was published, the headline was changed to say “Iron Fist: Marvel could have avoided a ‘white saviour’ and made the Netflix series better”, which I assume was just for the purpose of increasing views and so on. I don’t think this headline reflects the content of the article, which was intended more as an explainer than outright criticism – I haven’t actually watched a single frame of the show outside of trailers at this point. So, keep that in mind here.)

[Of course, another important caveat is that I do actually think Iron Fist should’ve cast an Asian American lead and it likely would have improved it a bit, but that’s not what the above is arguing.]

Facebook | Twitter | Blog Index | Superhero TV Index