With Marvel Studios’ Ironheart’s first trailer finally in the rearview mirror, the show’s press tour is heating up. The long-gestating Marvel Television series, which wrapped filming in 2022, has had a rocky rollout thus far, including delays and negative pushback from Marvel fans weeks before its debut. But now, the show's stars are speaking up before its debut, including touching on its Iron Man influences.
In a recent interview with SFX Magazine, star Dominique Thorne opened up about the upcoming Disney+ series and the challenges Riri will face in a post-Endgame MCU. With Iron Man dead and no clear successor stepping into his armored shoes, fans and critics have been quick to assume that Riri will be plugged into that role. But Thorne says the similarities between Iron Man and Ironheart largely end there, and that Riri Williams "is not Tony Stark:"
"There’s a clear understanding that she’s not Tony Stark. She does not have a billion dollars at her disposal. She does not have the resources... she doesn’t have the mentorship, or the guidance."
The series stars Thorne as teen tech prodigy Riri Williams, who made her MCU debut in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In that film, Riri finds herself kidnapped by the underwater nation of Talokan after she invents a device that can detect the presence of Vibranium, a nearly indestructible—and highly useful—metal that both Talokan and Wakanda possess. Now, the first three episodes of Ironheart will debut on Disney+ on June 24, 2025.
How do Ironheart & Iron Man Compare in the MCU?
In Wakanda Forever, after meeting Wakandan princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Dora Milaje leader Okoye (Danai Gurira) at MIT, Riri reveals that she has built a metallic suit of armor, similar to that of one of the MCU’s most popular heroes, Iron Man, aka Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). However, while both characters have a flying metal suit in common, Thorne has made it clear that Riri is not the next Iron Man.
It’s a stark contrast to Tony’s journey to become a hero. While Tony built his first Iron Man suit alone ("in a cave with a box of scraps!"), he was also a self-proclaimed "genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist" with access to endless funding, powerful allies, and advanced tech. Riri, by contrast, is a teenager from a working-class family in Chicago who has limited means and finds herself navigating MIT, trauma, and street-level threats without a team or a safety net.
Riri Williams’ Identity Beyond Iron Man
According to Thorne, Riri’s story is rooted in vulnerability and trauma, the human consequences of her brilliance, and the aftermath of her kidnapping:
"Coming off the heels of this super vulnerable experience, with her having been imprisoned... that vulnerability presents a very tender opportunity for Riri to make a real and impactful decision about how her genius will impact the world around her.”
Fans can expect the Ironheart series to explore these ideas in depth. Rather than focusing on high-level global threats, the show will lean into character-driven conflicts, particularly with the introduction of The Hood, played by In the Heights star Anthony Ramos.
Described as a mystical crime boss, Ironheart pits technology against magic, a very different type of matchup than Stark’s foes, which mostly included corporate rivals, sentient murder bots, and extraterrestrials. Thorne says Riri and The Hood couldn't be further apart:
“He couldn’t be farther apart from Riri. She’s a very logical, ‘show me the facts and run me the numbers’ person...What does it look like for someone like The Hood to enter her sphere now, where she is vulnerable and reflecting? It does set the stage for a very interesting journey ahead to see the people who pop up as she’s working to get those answers and what the scale of their influence can be, if any?"
Fans will learn more about the dynamic between Riri and The Hood and what differentiates her from Iron Man when Ironheart begins streaming on Disney+.
