Danny Rand can't help but be two-dimensional. There are five main facets to his character: have crazy kung-fu fights, get woke by his first black friend, fumble at leveraging his wealth in service to his newly acquired social awareness, have an off-and-on relationship with Misty Knight, and provide a pretext for introducing side characters that are more engaging than himself. The Netflix series skimped on the first with a bunch of quick cut bullshit, will presumably attempt the second and third during Defenders, and will likely forgo the fourth. Lip service to the fifth facet was paid with the Meachums, which were a weak choice poorly implemented. It's my opinion that the only reason they didn't go with the
70's origin, with Harold as legless and quickly murdered, was so that Joy's reunion with her dad reminds the viewer of how Trump wants to fuck his daughter.
What I would have preferred to see is an abbreviated version of the boardroom drama woven into an adaptation of the first and third arcs from 2006's The Immortal Iron Fist comic, with Danny Rand in a more ensemble role.
Orson Randall is a much cooler character than Danny, and that storyline shows the Rand fortune stemming from gold stolen by the corrupt leadership of the Seven Cities of Heaven so as to create secret gates between Earth and the Cities. It provides a workaround for the whole "1 day/X years portal" shtick, allows Danny to learn by degrees that he's heir to a legacy of multiple forms of exploitation, and provides a flashback opportunity for a 1920's gun-fu blimp fight between the Confederates of the Curious and the Prince of Orphans.
Discussions about appropriation and stereotypes caused me to look through a couple of sites and try to compile a list of hopefully most of the South/East/Southeast Asian Marvel characters. Here's what I have, with a couple of insipid comments. My takeaway is that Marvel should recast some more previously white characters, since these are slim pickings. Please let me know of anyone I missed.
Shang-Chi(Shen Kuie, Fu Manchu, Leiko Wu)
(He's a martial artist with the fictional personification of the Yellow Peril for a dad. Even if the licensing gets straightened out this seems unlikely.)
Jimmy Woo(Yellow Claw, Jade Claw)
(Similar to Shang-Chi, but replace martial arts with 50's superspies. Downplay the Yellow Claw/Secret Khanate angle, and play up Agents of Atlas, and I'd watch.)
Amadeus Cho
(I imagine She-Hulk would be introduced before T.A Hulk. As much as I might like to see him palling around with Hercules, Cho's superpower in that series is "Good at math".)
Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel
(She had a cartoon appearance 8 months ago. If it weren't for her fluff requiring introducing Inhumans and Captain Marvel(who requires introducing the Kree) and difficulty in making her powers look good on screen, she'd be the clear choice. An animated series would be well-received.)
Faiza Hussain
(Hussain and Woo are my personal choices. A stripped-down M.I.: 13 where she's learning how to swordfight from a Black Knight increasingly suffering from his curse could be played a few ways.)
Monica Chang
(I'm surprised she's hasn't already been in Agents of SHIELD)
Collective Man, Radioactive Man
(Is Marvel even allowed to show Chinese anti-hero/villains?)
ALREADY OR SOON TO BE ADAPTED: Big Hero 6, Mandarin, Mantis, Nico Minoru, Jim Morita, Colleen Wing, Quake
(A Daughters of the Dragon series seems certain, potentially including every female Netflix character, budget permitting. This would be a good place to introduce Angela/Aya del Toro as White Tiger.)
DAREDEVIL/IRON FIST RELATED: Immortal Weapons: Bride of Nine Spiders, Dog Brother #1, Fat Cobra, Tiger's Beautiful daughter; Shadowland: Cherry Blossom, Makro, Yuki; Sons of the Tiger: Lin Sun, Shinchuko Lotus; Lady Bullseye. Master Izo
(The Bride was referenced in Iron Fist, and the other Weapons might get similar treatment if there's a second season. White Tiger is more likely to be used than the Sons of the Tiger)
MINOR CHARACTERS: Invaders: Golden Girl II, Radiance; New Warriors: Midnight's Fire, Silhouette; Black Lotus, Chance(Fallen Angels mini-series), Amy Chen, Dragon Lord, Suzi Endo, Hazmat, Jolt, Komodo, Push (MC2), Turbo
(Radiance would be a great character that both plays against stereotype and has a link to WWII via her (great)grandmother, Golden Girl II. Silhouette and Hazmat are noteworthy characters with disabilities that would improve with a bit of background scrubbing, and Turbo would be neat if someone were to put a spin on Loners. The rest are either martial artists or have little name recognition.)
X-MEN AND RELATED: Kobayashi Amiko, Armor, Daken, Dust, Indra, Jubilee, Karma, Kirika, Lady Deathstrike, Yashida Mariko, Matsuya Takashi, Meanstreak, Psylocke(kinda), Red Lotus, Neal Shaara, Karima Shapandar, Senyaka, Shinobi Shaw, Silver Samurai, Sunfire, Sunpyre, Surge, Sway, Opal Tanaka, Tyger Tiger, Xi'an, Xorn, Yukio
SPIDER MAN RELATED: Silk, Tara Virango/Enigma, Takuya Yamashiro (70's Spider-Man)
(Marvel presumably doesn't have the rights to any of these)
NATIONAL TEAMS: People's Defense Force/China Force: Auric, Collective Man, Dog, Jade Dragon, Lady of Ten Suns, Most Perfect Hero, Ninth Immortal, Ox, Princess of Clouds, Rabbit, Rat, Scientific Beast, Silver, Snake, Spirit Animal; Triumph Division: Red Feather, Mighty Mother, St. George, Anitun, Fighter One, The Wishing Man, The Great Mongoose: (Super team of the Phillipines, 4 issue Iron Man arc);
(Not a chance)