What Multiple Iron Fist Masks Means for Season 2

Danny Rand's yellow and green costume may look a bit garish, but there's more to it than meets the eye. In the comics, Rand's costume is the ceremonial outfit of the Iron Fist. Originally conceptualized by artist Gil Kane in 1974 for Marvel Premiere #15, the yellow and green habit symbolizes the Iron Fist's victory over Shou-Lao the Undying, a collective ensemble truly befitting of K'un-Lun's greatest defender.

The costume is typically worn by the one who manages to slay the dragon Shou-Lao in combat and obtain unlimited power from his molten heart. In the comics, those were the rules, but Marvel's Iron Fist seems to be heading down a different path. The latest trailer for the show's second season reveals more than one person wearing the yellow mask-bandana, implying the costume has meaning beyond dragon slaying and becoming the Iron Fist.

Game of Thrones alum Finn Jones, who has played Danny Rand in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2017, confirmed the existence of multiple masks in Season 2 during a meet-and-greet at AsiaPOP Comicon last Sunday, while also teasing the inclusion of some version of the Iron Fist costume. "Well, we have a couple of different masks in the second season," he explained. "So you’ll see some Iron Fist masks, and, you know, there may be some form of costume in the second season."

The London native remained playfully tight-lipped regarding the nature of this mystery outfit -- whether it will match any of its comic counterparts, for instance -- and insisted fans should just watch the show when it returns and check out the costume for themselves. The yellow mask and white gi featured in the second trailer seem to reference Danny Rand's similarly colored jumpsuit he wore in 2010, as a member of Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers.

So, what accounts for the extra masks? If the classic getup is only reserved for the Iron Fist, why are both Rand and Davos wearing it? Well, the "flashback scene" in the trailer might not even be a flashback to begin with. Both Rand and Davos are wearing yellow masks and are fighting to the death in a controlled arena with the collective insignia of the Eight Capital Cities of Heaven inscribed into the sparring mat. The battle is being overseen by several elders, including Lei Kung the Thunderer -- Rand and Davos's master -- and quite possibly the rulers of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven.

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This could be a potential callback to the Tournament of the Seven Heavenly Cities storyline featured in The Immortal Iron Fist (by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and Duane Swierczynski), where Danny Rand competes with the other six Immortal Weapons to determine K'un-Lun's place on Earth and the celestial plane. Each Capital City has its own champion, the Iron Fist being K'un-Lun's. Davos would have been another city's champion.

In the comics, Rand's best friend Davos defects from K'un-Lun and becomes the Steel Serpent, eventually transforming into the Steel Phoenix, the Immortal Weapon of the Capital City of K'un-Zi. He would inevitably face the Iron Fist in the tournament if, of course, Rand actually agrees to take part in the next one. In this case, that "flashback scene" might have been a dream sequence, or how Rand visualizes the fight happening had he been around to defend K'un-Lun in the first season.

In the comics, the consequence for losing the tournament is simple; the cities the loser represents may only appear on Earth every 50 years, while the winning city may appear every 10 years (15 in the show), implying K'un-Lun won the last tournament. The first season of Iron Fist ends with K'un-Lun's untimely "disappearance," however, implying they may have lost the most recent tournament, most likely because Danny wasn't there.

In this case, having more than one mask around makes sense, since theoretically there would be more than one Immortal Weapon fighting in the Heart of Heaven.

At the same time, however, the MCU has never shied away from onscreen retcons. That flashback scene could simply be a ceremonial match to determine the Iron Fist's next candidate, in which case the masks are purely symbolic, meant to epitomize the purpose of such a fight. But this hasn't been publicly confirmed so far.

It could also be another type of flashback scene showing Rand actually competing in the tournament. Unfortunately, we already know he left K'un-Lun shortly after becoming the Iron Fist, so there's no way he'd have already taken part before the start of the first season. Or perhaps he had, and lost, which is why K'un-Lun's suddenly vanished. But that doesn't explain why Davos and Rand are still friends before Episode 12 last season.

In the second trailer, when asked what's wrong, Rand simply tells Colleen Wing, "It's just a bad memory." "Bad memory" could mean an actual past event, or the memory of an imagined regret. At this point, the season could go either way.

Written by Raven Metzner, the second season of Marvel's Iron Fist hits Netflix on September 7. It stars Jessica Henwick, Tom Pelphrey, Jessica Stroup, Sacha Dhawan, Alice Eve, and Finn Jones as the titular character.