When the character Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne) made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut back in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the idea was that we’d be seeing the character again the following year in her own six-episode Disney+ show Ironheart… but 2023 came and went without Ironheart, and so did 2024. Now we know that we’ll finally have the chance to watch the show on June 24th – and in anticipation of that premiere date, a behind-the-scenes featurette has dropped online, mixing footage from the show with clips of interviews with cast members and producers (including Black Panther director Ryan Coogler). Much of the footage in the featurette has been seen before, in either the trailer embedded above or the second trailer, but there’s a bit of new footage in the mix as well – and some of that footage has stirred up villain speculation among Marvel Comics fans. You can watch the featurette in the embed below, then I’ll discuss the villain speculation in a paragraph with a SPOILER tag.
Dominique Thorne stars in Ironheart as Riri Williams, “a genius inventor who creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.” She is joined in the cast by Manny Montana, Shakira Barrera, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Shea Couleé, Zoe Terakes, Lyric Ross, Matthew Elam, Anji White, Jim Rash, Harper Anthony, Sonia Denis, Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola, Paul Calderón, and Cree Summer, with Anthony Ramos as Parker Robbins, a.k.a. The Hood. We’ve also heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was in talks to play Mephisto.
Chinaka Hodge, whose previous credits include Snowpiercer and The Midnight Club, is the head writer on the series. Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes direct the episodes. As mentioned, Ryan Coogler, who was behind the Black Panther movies, is an executive producer on the show.
Here’s the episode list:
And here’s the behind-the-scenes featurette:
As for why Ironheart is taking so long to make its way out into the world, that is entirely due to the decision to take more time between the releases of Marvel projects. Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation Brad Winderbaum told Agents of Fandom, “Frankly, in all honesty, there was a mandate to kind of create as much as we could for Disney+ as quickly as we could. And then, there was a shift, and all of a sudden, we have to start spreading our release dates out. So, that really accounts for a lot of the delays.“
Now, we enter potential SPOILER territory: There’s one quick moment in the featurette that has fans speculating that Alden Ehrenreich’s character, who appears to be supportive of Riri Williams in the trailers, may turn out to be a secondary villain, as they think he’s playing Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane (the son of Jeff Bridges’ Obadiah Stane from the original Iron Man). As SuperHeroHype notes, the featurette “includes a brief shot of a technologically advanced arm sparking with energy. Fans observed that the arm shown does not match Riri Williams’ bulkier Ironheart suit. Instead, the sleeker design closely resembles the comic book depiction of Stane’s biomechanical enhancements.” Want more information on the character? SuperHeroHype has it: “Zeke Stane, created by Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson, first appeared in the comics in 2008. He is the son of Obadiah Stane, the original Iron Man villain. In the comics, Zeke enhances his body by reverse-engineering Stark tech. He reduces his metabolic consumption and uses the surplus energy to fire repulsor blasts. He kills a tobacco company’s board using this tech and deploys biotech-enhanced suicide bombers to carry out global attacks. In the comics, Zeke fights Iron Man, manipulates other villains, and allies with the Mandarin. The Mandarin enslaves him, but Zeke eventually breaks free, kills him, and takes over Stane International. He later funds a rebellion in Wakanda. Zeke is a post-national futurist who aims to replace Tony Stark’s legacy. Instead of wearing armor, he merges technology with his body and becomes the weapon.” Alden Ehrenreich’s character is officially credited as Joe McGillicuddy, but fans think that’s just a cover name.
Are you looking forward to Ironheart? What do you think of the featurette and the villain speculation? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
