New Iron Fist Season 2 trailer renews our hope for the Netflix series

[Ulquiorra]

You’d be forgiven for losing track of Marvel’s various Defenders series and characters on Netflix over the past few years—particularly if you let its weakest standalone series, Iron Fist, fall through your viewing queue. But thanks to the new trailer for Iron Fist’s second season, which arrived on Thursday, we may have good reason to get excited when this Defender returns to Netflix on September 7.

(Mild spoilers for IF S1 and Defenders below.)

Hopes for a more compelling Iron Fist took a while to come to fruition: sometime through the first Defenders season, when Danny "Iron Fist" Rand (Finn Jones) received a verbal beatdown from Luke Cage ("You had power the day you were born"). That potential was fulfilled when Rand guested in Luke Cage's second season. This downright likable two-episode arc delivered what was arguably missing from his series' first season: a sense of deeper personal growth, even as he overcame tremendous physical odds to become the Iron Fist.

That status appears to be challenged, according to today's new trailer, by another former K'un Lun student, Davos (Steel Serpent). Having trained with Danny and disliking what he saw there, Davos appears to assert that he should be wielding that power instead. Meanwhile, Danny is already feeling ambivalent about his power and questioning the long-term impact of his nightly patrols to keep the peace in Hell's Kitchen with Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) providing butt-kicking backup.

If the trailer is anything to go by, the fight scenes between Danny and Davos could prove to be spectacular—which would make up for the first season's decidedly tepid action. Added bonus: the ever-fabulous Misty Knight makes an appearance. Whether this new season will make up for the first one's problematic treatment of race and petulant, spoiled lead character remains to be seen. But a solid, butt-kicking foundation already appears evident.