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Ironheart: Even though the lines between Marvel’s phases are starting to feel less important, we’re now moving from Phase 5 to Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Surprisingly, the final piece of Phase 5 isn’t the movie Thunderbolts, which was the last to hit theatres, it’s a Disney+ TV series called Ironheart. And the movie Fantastic Four: First Steps is expected to kick off Phase 6.
So, who exactly is Ironheart? Have we seen her before in the MCU, and is she connected to Iron Man?
Ironheart is a new six-episode show on Disney+. It tells the story of Riri Williams, a smart teenage girl played by Dominique Thorne. She comes back home to Chicago after briefly studying at MIT (yes, she’s a genius). It’s nice to see a Marvel story take place outside of New York for once, Chicago’s skyline has a lot of cool buildings that Marvel could use in future stories!
The first three episodes of Ironheart came out on June 24, and the final three were added on July 1. If you’re a bit lost on where this fits in with the comics or the movies, don’t worry, here’s what you need to know.
Is Ironheart related to Iron Man?
You might think that Ironheart is closely connected to Iron Man, but not in the way you’d expect.
Riri Williams (Ironheart) doesn’t work for Tony Stark, isn’t related to him, and didn’t get any help from Stark Industries or other Iron Man-like heroes (like War Machine). She’s never even met Tony Stark.
But Riri is a super smart inventor, which is how she got into the famous school, MIT. She’s a big fan of Iron Man, so she decided: Why not try to make my suit? And she built her version of an Iron Man suit, all by herself.
She didn’t even have one of those powerful Arc Reactors that Iron Man used. That just shows how talented she is!
Unlike Spider-Man, who got his suit and help from Iron Man, Riri figured everything out alone. No billionaire funding her, no fancy labs, just her brain and hard work.
But, building a suit like that isn’t cheap.
Parts are expensive, and she’s not rich. That’s where a lot of the story’s drama comes in: she needs money to keep building and fixing her suit. Maybe she could’ve used a mentor (or a sponsor!).
So, how does Ironheart fit into the Marvel world?
Even though Riri never worked with Iron Man, she’s already appeared in the MCU before!
If you watched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, you might remember her. In that movie, a vibranium detector caused some serious problems. The U.S. used the machine to find underwater vibranium, which made the underwater kingdom Talokan angry.
When the Wakandan heroes Shuri and Okoye tried to find out who built the detector, they ended up at MIT, because Riri built it.
Later in that film, Riri fights alongside Wakanda using her very first version of an Iron Man-style suit. So, that was our first real look at Ironheart in action.
In the Ironheart series, one of the villains is Zeke Stane, played by Alden Ehrenreich.
Recognise that last name?
You should! Zeke is the son of Obadiah Stane, the villain from the very first Iron Man movie (the bald guy played by Jeff Bridges). So yes, there is a link to Iron Man — through the bad guys!
In the Ironheart series, there’s another thing that connects Riri to Tony Stark in spirit.
Just like Iron Man had a smart computer (like JARVIS) inside his suit to help him, Riri has one too.
But here’s what makes hers different: Riri’s AI is based on her real-life best friend, Natalie. She created the AI and named it:
N.A.T.A.L.I.E. – which stands for Neuro Autonomous Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity.
So while Tony Stark’s suit AI turned into a real person (Vision), Riri’s AI started as a real person and became part of her tech. A beautiful flip on Tony’s story.