Since we are not getting Iron Man anytime soon coming up in MCU, his legacy has to be continue.
Surely there we saw Tom Holland’s Peter Parker who regards him as a father figure and a mentor who will keep him alive through his works, but there is still a direct connection missing. Someone who truly carries on his name or is closer to his tech side.
Thankfully, Marvel Studios announced their upcoming Disney+ Series titled Ironheart who is a recently introduced Marvel hero in this cinematic universe.
While we are going to see her coming with her solo show on Disney+, her first appearance still going to be in the next Black Panther sequel movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
However, there is not much clarity on how her character will play part in the plot of the story.
Through the trailer, what has been gained is that this new MCU hero is going to assist Wakandans and also the new Black Panther fights against Namor, the Submariner.
So, having her name Ironheart, you may ask how she is connected to Tony Stark aka Iron Man who unfortunately departed from the world of superheroes.
And what about her upcoming show and details such as release date, plot, cast, characters, and much more along with the character, and her role in comics?
We are going to cover everything below, so hop on!
Ironheart Cast
Regarding the cast of the show, there are only a few members that are more or less confirmed or are official.
The titular character is definitely confirmed! Dominique Thorne is going to play Riri Wiliams aka Ironheart, a teenager who becomes this superhero named Ironheart by creating an iron-man-inspired suit for herself.
Dominique Thorne is going to make her MCU debut in the upcoming Black Panther 2 where was spotted in the trailers hammering a heart-shaped iron from her armor.
The actor is popularly known for her works in Beale Street Could Talk and Judas and the Black Messiah.
At the D3 2022 Expo, another cast member from the show, Anthony Ramos is confirmed to play Parker Robbins aka The Hood, known for his movie In The Heights.
According to The Wrap, the audience also saw the on-hand footage of both of these cast Thorne and Ramos in the movie which also hinted that Parker Robbins might not be a good guy in the movie.
ScreeRant reports from D23 convention that Jim Rash, known from Community also going to appear as Dean of MIT who also has been seen previously in Captain America: Civil War.
Then, we also get reports from Deadline about Alden Ehrenreich from Solo:A Star Wars Story also will be appearing in the Ironheart show, said to be playing a “key role”.
Another cast-related news for the Ironheart show came through The Hollywood Reporter that This Is Us star Lyric Ross also joined the cast as well.
There are other reports of rumored, unofficial or unconfirmed Ironheart Cast such as Manny Montana (Good Girls), Paul Calderon (Pulp Fiction), Sonia Denis (Brown Girls), Zoe Terraces (Nine Perfect Strangers) and many more.
Here’s the full list of Disney+ Ironheart Cast including rumoured, confirmed/unofficial and official/confirmed members :
- Dominique Thorne ( Riri Williams/Ironheart)
- Anthony Ramos (Parker Robbins/The Hood)
- Lyric Ross
- Jim Rash (MIT Dean)
- Harper Anthony
- Alden Ehrenreich
- Zoe Terakes
- Sonia Denis
- Cree Summer
- Shea Coulee’
- Regan Aliyah
- Manny Montana
- Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola
- Shakira Barrera
- Paul Caldero’n
Ironheart Plot
The primary plot of the show is going to be about Riri Williams, this black genius inventor girl from MIT, creates a high-tech armor suit similar to Iron Man, from reverse engineering Tony Stark’s disposed suit.
Apart from that, there is no confirmed or official plot release from the studios or the makers of the show.
Anything regarding the plot of the series can be extrapolated from its comic version which still could be different yet closer as being the source material.
The plot of the show also becomes interesting for this one because in the comics, there is a lot focus on her relationship with Iron Man aka Tony Stark who also become her mentor.
And since there is no Iron man surviving in MCU at least on Earth #616, it will be interesting to see how her origin is taken care of related to Iron Man part.
What is pretty much clear about the plot of the show that, it might be extends from what we see in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which marks her debut in MCU.
She will be helping out her friend Shuri defending Wakanda where we see her armor in the show as well.
Apart from that, we also know that Parker Robbins aka The Hood will be also in this show played by Anthony Ramos, as footage was shown of him at the D23 2022 Expo.
The Hood is a villain in the comics where in the show he might be more like an anti-hero or even a villain. There is no assurance there.
The theme of the movie which is going to impact the plot dramatically seems to be something sort of Magic vs Technology where The Hood comes from the Magic side and Ironheart obviously from the Technology.
Is There A Release Date For Ironheart?
Just like few other shows from Marvel that are going to release on Disney+, Ironheart also doesn’t have an official release date confirmed.
And it is more likely that the release date won’t be revealed to the audience until we get closer to the planned timeframe of the show.
The good news is we know the timeframe where you can expect the Disney+ Ironheart release date to be known in public, and that is somewhere in the fall of 2023.
That means, sometimes closer to that time frame, the release date will be revealed and may be even trailer get released too.
Who is The Villain In Disney+ Ironheart?
Just like the plot, there is no official details confirmed or revealed regarding the main villain of the Ironheart show.
However, there are some recent set photos revealing a character who seem quite like a famous villain from Marvel Comics.
These pictures were revealed actor Anthony Ramos, from Hamilton and In the Heights welding a pistol and wearing a hood that comic fans easily connect it to a well-known villain character from Ironheart comics.
Just the visual definitely confirms that Ramos is playing a fan-favorite villain character called The Hood, also earlier known as Parker Robbins.
Surprisingly, Robbin’s The Hood origin story is not very different from MCU’s very own Scott Lang aka Ant-Man as, he also started his criminal career as a small-time thief who accidentally got his hands on this supernatural demon wearing a red hood.
He shot down this demon and stole what he was earning only to realize later how the hood is supernatural and able to give him magical abilities such as energy projection and teleportation.
These powers later found out to be coming from the known Doctor Strange villain Dormammu, so over time, he can possess him and make him his pawn.
What went differently between him and Scott Lang was, The Hood never considered being a superhero or using his powers to help people.
Parker’s character himself was never interested in heroes rather always fascinated by supervillains without rules to follow or obligations to do certain things.
What To Know About IronHeart In Comics
Tragic Childhood Past Of IronHeart
In the comics, Riri Williams lives through real tragedy in her childhood.
When she was 13 years old and went for a picnic with her family and her best friend Natalie, they got caught up in the crossfire of shooting of people there.
It started when an unknown man started shooting people in the same park where Riri’s family was, and her family was unfortunately to become collateral in the street violence.
As a result, Riri’s step-father and her friend Natalie get shot and die at the spot.
Chances are MCU might also use this origin story to show why Riri decided to fight crime and become Ironheart.
NATALIE Is ironheart’s JARVIS
Like we see Iron Man’s closest partner is this AI he created named JARVIS which assists Tony Stark almost everywhere from his suit to eventually becoming Vision.
Riri William is known for her extreme intelligence, in the comics. She is also a great engineer which makes her perfect to work on her own Artificial intelligence project that she can put in her armor.
Her created AI scanning her own brain waves and personality takes the form of her dead friend Natalie, showing up as this projected hologram image of her in 3D form.
Very cleverly and also very heartfelt, she named her AI, Neuro-Autonomous Technical Assistant & Laboratory Intelligence Entity, making the acronym NATALIE.
There is no news or confirmation regarding whether Natalie will show up in the Ironheart series or not, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, Lyric Ross will be playing the role of Riri’s best friend where the name is not revealed yet.
So, there might be a chance she will be Natalie, her best friend, and then also her NATALIE, the holographic AI as well.
How Does Riri Get Ironheart Armor?
It seems plausible in the MCU so far that Riri will be a genius who will be able to create her own version of the ‘Iron Man’ armor which is also the case in the comics.
In comics, Riri was able to get her hands on a disposable Iron Man armor with model number 41 where she was successful in reverse-engineering it.
And then, she designed armor for herself using material from MIT University where she is a student at.
Relationship Between Ironheart And Iron Man
In the comics, Iron Man does meet with Riri while she is working on her armor from the garage of her house, but apparently, that’s not going to happen in MCU ( or might be! )
So, in the comics, Tony Stark comes to know about Riri’s aspiration of becoming a superhero and the suit that Riri’s mother doesn’t support.
So, Tony invites both of them to dinner to discuss the future of Riri and also to convince her mother not to stop Ironheart.
And soon, he becomes a mentor for Ironheart, sort of what we see in the MCU between Iron Man/Tony Stark and Spider-Man/Peter Parker.
Again, he doesn’t really be at the moment physically but uses his holographic AI-based form to guide her.
As Tony Stark aka Iron Man departed from MCU in the Avengers: Endgame, one cannot expect to be a direct interaction between them, at least not in this timeline.
Since MCU is exploring the multiverse concept, there might be another Tony Stark for Riri Williams aka Ironheart.
Ironheart Alliances
In comics, there is a good relationship between Ironheart and Shuri. They team up quite a few times where Riri also helps Shuri in the defense mission for Wakanda.
And that’s why Wakanda always welcomes Ironheart to be there whenever she needs a place to live or be safe somewhere.
This is definitely what we are going to see in the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which making the debut of Riri William aka Ironheart.
And since the Wakanda is vulnerable and attacked from all sides, Shuri who is the new Black Panther must have asked her friend Ironheart to help her protect Wakanda.
Apart from Shuri, in the comics, she had many alliances with other Marvel superheroes, especially with Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man (Miles Morales), and Cyclops.
These characters go along with Ironheart to make a super-team called Champions. So basically, we might see Ironheart to be part of a Young Avengers which we are soon going to see in the MCU with characters like America Chavez, Ms. Marvel, Kate Bishop and others.
Shea Coulee’ who is a potential cast member of the show might be playing the drag queen mutant in the MCU named Darkveil aka Shade.
Source: The Wrap | ScreenRant | Deadline | The Hollywood Reporter
Featured Image Source: DS