"I don't feel so good…" While Peter Parker's final line has become a popular meme and catchphrase since the release of the third Avengers movie, don't expect anybody to utter it when Netflix's next Marvel series debuts. How will Iron Fist Season 2 connect to Infinity War? Unfortunately, despite the fact that they all supposedly exist within the same continuity, the streaming service has a history of ignoring the big screen entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — especially when it comes to the game-changing events of Thanos' infamous snap!
There is no hint of the devastating effects of the "Snapture" on display in the Iron Fist Season 2 trailers, with the new episodes seemingly taking place in a New York City untouched by Thanos, in which half of the population has decidedly not dissolved into piles of ash. Assuming this isn't misleading advertising, the kung fu action series' sophomore outing wouldn't be the first Marvel TV show to straight-up ignore the events of Infinity War.
ABC's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. — which was wrapping up its fifth season when Infinity War was released — and Freeform's Cloak & Dagger — which had its series premiere over a month later — both decided to skirt the question of the snap. Iron Fist's Netflix sibling Luke Cage ignored Infinity War earlier this summer; and even feature film Ant-Man And The Wasp largely skirted the issue by setting its main plot before the cataclysmic events of the recent Avengers film.
That same tactic is what Netflix is using to distance its Marvel series from Infinity War's universe-altering ending. "For the most part our stories will take place BEFORE Thanos clicked his fingers," Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb said in a Reddit AMA back in June. "A lot of that has to do with production and when we are telling our stories vs. when the movies come out. So hang in there."
Loeb wasn't just blowing hot air, either; according to Digital Spy, Iron Fist Season 2 began filming way back in December of 2017, four full months before the world found out about the "Snapture." There probably wasn't enough time to incorporate that twist into the plot of Iron Fist by the time filming wrapped in May (as revealed on star Finn Jones' Instagram), just two weeks after Infinity War's premiere.
For those disappointed by Netflix's manipulation of the timeline in order to avoid the consequences of Infinity War, perhaps patience might be the best virtue. Loeb did say to "hang in there." Given some more time in their production schedules, perhaps other Netflix Marvel shows will start incorporating the snap into their storylines in the future.
"It depends on the show," Loeb told Bustle at the Luke Cage Season 2 premiere in New York City this past June. "There's no blanket statement I can give you. Certainly Luke Cage takes place before the infamous snap — and some of that just had to with the fact that we were shooting [the second season] before the movie came out." (The same applies to Iron Fist Season 2.) "Obviously, we can't be telling the end of the story before we get there." But Loeb did have some words of hope. "All of our things we try to tie in..." he teased. "There may be, in the future, more opportunities for that to happen."
Who knows? Maybe Loeb is hiding a massive twist: maybe the finale of Iron Fist Season 2 will catch up with the events of Season 2, ending with Danny Rand turning into a pile of dirt, much to the delight of the show's many harsh critics.
