How Season 2 of ‘Iron Fist’ Sets Up Season 3 and Beyond

Kim Taylor-Foster
TV Streaming
TV Streaming Marvel MCU Netflix

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains SPOILERS for Iron Fist Season 2. Proceed at your own risk.

While the majority of Iron Fist Season 2 deals with wrapping up the fallout from Season 1, it also sets out a strong case for getting Season 3 greenlit. Most of the interesting stuff occurs in the latter stages of Season 2 – and whatever you’ve made of Marvel’s Iron Fist up to this point, there’s no denying that the next season promises a bunch of exciting narrative strands to follow. So let’s take a look at what Iron Fist Season 2 sets up for the future of the Defenders’ franchise.

Daughters of the Dragon

Iron Fist Misty Colleen
Marvel's Iron Fist

The Marvel Netflix shows have been teasing the formation of the Daughters of the Dragon for some time. In Iron Fist Season 2, the establishment of this dynamic duo takes a big step forward. This comic-book pairing consists of NYPD detective Misty Knight and martial arts maestro Colleen Wing, who team up to form a private detective agency.

Plenty of screen time is dedicated to watching these two kick butt as their relationship is cemented. The season also documents Misty’s ever-increasing frustration at the limitations placed on her by the red tape involved in her job. And when she’s offered promotion, she really starts to question whether the NYPD is where she belongs.

By the same token, we’re given plenty of opportunity to see just how fearless — and fearsome — Colleen is, and in the final episode the pair discuss a partnership, with Misty saying: “KnightWing has a ring to it”. KnightWing Restorations Inc. is the name of their investigative business in the comic books. While we’re likely to see more from this formidable twosome in the next season of Iron Fist, could Netflix also be paving the way for a spin-off series featuring the Daughters of the Dragon?

With Misty also pointing out that the last time she saw Luke Cage she “did not like what I saw”, it seems that a face-off between Knight and Mike Colter’s Power Man could be in the offing. Whether that takes place during the next season of Luke Cage, Iron Fist, or elsewhere, remains to be seen.

Colleen As the Iron Fist

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During Season 2, Danny Rand decided that his girlfriend Colleen should pick up the mantle of the Iron Fist after he loses it to Davos. He says he doesn’t want it back, saying it consumed him. Colleen is initially reluctant before deciding she is ready and taking part in a botched Fist-transference ritual. During the finale, the action skips forward a few months, and shows us Colleen tackling the perpetrators of a robbery in New York. She confronts them with her white-glowing Iron Fist – which seems also to power her katana that glows with the same white light.

She certainly looks at home using her new powers, despite her earlier reservations. We also learn in Season 2 that her katana was inherited from her grandfather. With the story also teasing more about Colleen’s background revolving around her mother, we can expect to learn more about her mysterious family history in Season 3 – and how it may tie into Danny’s.

The Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay is a story Colleen’s mother used to tell her as a child that Colleen believed her mum made up, but it’s also a story that rings a bell with Danny. He recognizes it as more than just a story – it refers to former Iron Fist Wu Ao-Shi and could signal that not only is Colleen’s mother still alive, but that she could be from K’un-Lun.

Danny’s Double Fisting

Iron Fist Danny Rand Davos
Danny Rand shows off his Iron Fist to rival Davos.

At the end of the season finale when it’s revealed that Colleen is out being a white-fisted, katana-wielding vigilante, it’s also revealed that Danny is in Japan with Ward Meachum. The pair headed off to Asia so Danny could find out more about the Iron Fist, with Ward tagging along for the ride. As a seemingly drunk Ward sits in a bar chatting to a local about trying to track down the dude’s boss, he reveals details of the corpse discovered in a shipping container wearing a mask with a dragon burned onto its chest. The same one which Davos purchased, said to be the body of a former Iron Fist.

“I want to talk to the man who sent it,” Ward says. “A guy named Orson Randall.”

As Danny is revealed to be also sitting in the bar, the shady guy responds: “Our employer wants his property back.”

To which Danny retorts: “You mean these?” as he whips out two handguns, both fists – and guns — aglow. Whether Danny’s enhanced powers came as a result of the botched ritual involving him, Colleen and Davos, or whether the corpse — or Randall — had a part to play is yet to be revealed.

As for who Orson Randall is, in the comics he was the Iron Fist before Danny Rand picked up the mantle, and his weapons of choice were twin handguns. His arrival in K’un-Lun mirrors that of Danny’s, and – here’s the really interesting bit – he adopted Danny’s father Wendell Rand as a child, training him to fight and telling him stories of K’un-Lun. Randall was actually really wealthy, and when he “died”, he left his fortune to Wendell. In Season 3, we expect to see this story play out, and discover exactly how Danny came to be in the possession of the two guns, and develop TWO fiery fists.

Bloody Mary

Iron Fist Season 2
Alice Eve's Mary meets Finn Jones's Danny Rand.

Iron Fist Season 2 introduces a new character into the mix in the form of Alice Eve’s Mary Walker. As the season progresses, we learn that the meek and personable Mary we first meet hides a secret – she has an alternate persona known as Walker. The character suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), with Walker a very different proposition to Mary. Walker is much harder than her gentile artist alter ego, and is hired first as a mercenary by Joy and Davos, and then by Danny. It transpires that, she’s got a third alter we don’t meet but know exists.

Flashbacks reveal Mary Walker’s time as a prisoner of war in Sokovia, and later she refers to her rape and torture. It was during this time that her DID emerged. After doing a bit of digging, she becomes convinced that there’s a third, hyperviolent persona responsible for her escape from that hellhole. The persona known as Walker is otherwise known as Typhoid Mary in the comic books, while the third persona is known as Bloody Mary. Associated more with Daredevil than Iron Fist, this supervillain could be set to appear in the next season of Daredevil as easily as the next season of Iron Fist.

Links to the Wider MCU

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There are two sides to every story -- or three in Mary's case.

Mary’s backstory hints at the storyline in Captain America: Civil War, and links to Avengers: Age of Ultron. We aren’t told when Mary’s ordeal as a prisoner of war occurred, but there’s every chance that she could have suffered at the hands of EKO Scorpion, Civil War villain Helmut Zemo’s secret elite death squad. Following Ultron’s attack on Sokovia, the situation would have been such that a US special ops team might well have been called in in order to manage the crisis – which could explain why reinforcements were on hand to extract Walker following her slaughter of the men that held her.

If this is the case, perhaps we can expect more — and stronger — links to the wider MCU in future Defenders’ series. And if Season 3 of Iron Fist, or perhaps Daredevil, explores Mary Walker’s story further, we could find this part of her history blown wide open with explicit references to EKO Scorpion or Ultron thrown in.

Ward Meachum’s Baby

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In Season 2, Ward gets somebody pregnant, but could it have ramifications?

It’s anybody’s guess as to what will become of the baby Ward’s NA sponsor-cum-girlfriend Bethany is pregnant with. But we’re going to go out on a limb and say it isn’t just a disposable plot device. Could the baby have something to do with bringing Harold Meachum back into the show? Presumed dead, Meachum Sr. was actually undead at the time of his apparent death, having been resurrected by the Hand. And if we’ve learned anything about comic book deaths, it’s that they’re not necessarily final.

Kim Taylor-Foster
Kim Taylor-Foster is Entertainment Editor for Fandom in the UK. She was raised on an unsteady diet of video nasties and violent action flicks.