Ironheart just wrapped up with arguably one of the biggest character introductions to the MCU in years: Mephisto. Played by Sacha Baron Cohen, who was cast in 2022, the Devil-like Marvel villain finally appears in the new Disney+ series, where it's revealed that he is the one who gave Anthony Ramos' Parker his powerful red hood.
To make everything even worse, when Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams finally comes face-to-face with him, she makes a deal with Mephisto to save her best friend's life, Natalie (Lyric Ross).
The Direct's Russ Milheim spoke with Ironheart executive producers Zoie Nagelhout and Sev Ohanian about the character's introduction, how they balanced his screen time, and choosing not to truly show his real form.
Nagelhout explained how "the thematic relevance that Mephisto offers just fit into ['Ironheart'] so perfectly." She said that "Mephisto [is] someone who sort of feeds on ambition" and "people's wants and their desires, and manipulates that."
Ohanian chimed in to say that they never wanted Mephisto "to overtake what the overall show was about" and that it was "never about a cameo for a cameo's sake."
As for the usage of Mephisto's true form, Ohanian teased that "if you watch closely, you actually get [a small peak]," further elaborating that they "explore[d] every possible version" of how the iconic villain looked.
Fans have been theorizing about Mephisto's eventual arrival since Wandavision, even though, supposedly, that was never the plan to begin with. So, there are many people who are extremely happy with how Ironheart closed out its run.
Ironheart is streaming on Disney+.
Ironheart Producers on How Much of Mephisto To Show
"We Didn't Want to Undermine Parker..."
- The Direct: "I have to ask how you guys got to do something that everyone thought was going to happen during 'WandaVision,' but now we finally got it [In Ironheart]: Mephisto's introduction. Why was Ironheart the perfect place to introduce such a big villain, and how did you strike that balance of how much you wanted to utilize him in the story?"
Zoie Nagelhout: That's a great question, especially the last part is very important, right? Because what you don't want to do is undermine your main villain. We didn't want to undermine Parker and not have him be the ultimate foe that Riri was kind of going up against, because that's who we spent series with, and that's where a lot of the culminations needed to happen.
But there was this understanding that we needed to unpack and uncover the power behind the person or the entity behind Parker's power. And in the comics, as you probably know, it's Dormammu. And so we, of course, spent time tinkering with that idea.
But at the end of the day, the thematic relevance that Mephisto offers just fit into our show so perfectly. You know, this notion of a character who is deeply ambitious, and Mephisto as someone who sort of feeds on ambition, like feeds on people's wants and their desires, and manipulates that not only felt inherent to what Parker does, but it also sort of offered this really great kind of culmination for the character of Riri.
So, it all came from story, but as a fan, certainly it was, like the coolest thing, part of the project that it introduced him to the MCU.
- The Direct: "We don't really get his true form in this. What was that conversation? Did we ever get really close to like, here he is in his full?"
Sev Ohanian: I mean, if you watch closely, you actually get [a small peak]... You know, we explored it all. That's the job. You know, you explore every possible version of it. And how much is enough of a tease, how much is too little, how much is too much.
And to Zoie's point, we didn't want to overtake what the overall show was about. It was never about a cameo for a cameo sake, but rather a culmination of what's been happening already, and obviously a sign of what's to come. I do like that.
We kind of see him in a couple of different scenes take very different tactics to how he presents himself, both physically, his accent, the way he carries himself. It gives you a sign of the things that Sacha [Baren Cohen] is able to do with this character, if and when you see him again.
The full interview can be seen below:
