Marvel Studios Reveals How Iron Man’s Legacy Will Continue in the MCU

Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams began her MCU journey as a technologically gifted MIT student, landing in a spot of trouble after becoming a blip on the Wakandans' radar. In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the 19-year-old up-and-comer is at the center of an international incident thanks to her latest invention: a device that can detect vibranium. MCU devotees knew that Wakanda controls the planet's largest and, as the rest of society knows it, singular supply of the extremely valuable metal. 

But as audiences discovered in the Black Panther sequel, the Gulf of Mexico is chock-full of the stuff. Undersea Mutant warlord (and Avengers: Doomsday cast member) Namor has built Talokan, his entire kingdom beneath the waves, from Vibranium. Much like Wakanda, Talokan has progressed beyond the scientific limitations of any other Earthbound nation. And a kidnapping, rescue mission, and one regicide later, Riri helps take the fight to Namor in her own Iron Man-like suit of power armor, built from Wakandan tech.

At the close of the film, Riri must hand her new armor over to her new Wakandan pal Shuri to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. This is where audiences finds Riri in Ironheart. 

She's desperate to reach the heights she achieved in Wakanda back in her home city of Chicago. And that desperation leads her to some seriously shady benefactors.

But what of those who came before Riri Williams? Specifically, Tony Stark, who built a similar armored suit of his own design while Riri was still in diapers, and was a founding member of the Avengers, preventing countless world-ending events, ultimately giving his life to save reality itself from Thanos. 

And despite assertions that the MCU's Riri is not the next Iron Man, the billionaire superhero left behind a legacy as big as his ego. Notably, in a freshly posted Ironheart promo, Miss Williams drops an important line: "I want to continue Stark's legacy:"

This is a tall order for the young hero-in-the-making. Ironheart seemingly opens with Riri becoming expelled from MIT and losing access to the campus's state-of-the-art labs and facilities. But if she's anything like Tony, she'll find a way to beat the odds in the most clever fashion possible. 

Already in the marketing for the series, fans saw Riri reject the answer to a life-threatening test forced on her by villain Parker Robbins and instead use her smarts and the objects around her to devise and construct her own unique solution. 

This brings to mind the similar moments in which Tony Stark was on the back foot only to succeed through his ingenuity. Like when he was thrown into a cave by terrorists and building his first-ever Iron Man suit to escape, or infiltrating Aldrich Killian's compound using nothing but weapons built from stuff he found at Home Depot.

But the most important thing that Tony left behind was his sense of heroism. He continually put himself in potentially lethal danger to protect others. He may have eventually frayed personal relationships and developed obsessive tendencies in service of that goal, but he never lost the unique qualities and quirks that made him Tony Stark.

Riri may never be required to make those sorts of sacrifices in the MCU. Ultimately, she's still just a kid from Chicago. But she's also brilliant and unshakably driven, not to mention fixated on upgrading her armor wherever and whenever possible. These are qualities she shares in spades with Tony. Additionally, Riri's Ironheart suit clearly takes heavy inspiration from Iron Man.

In another piece of Ironheart promotional material (via Marvel Studios on X), executive producer Ryan Coogler explained that "Obviously, there's a lot of people who put on that suit," as clips of Iron Man, War Machine, Spider-Man, and Pepper Potts as Rescue flash by. "Now, you have this young scientist. She has this incredible capacity for brilliance," Coogler continued:

That brilliance will be put to the test as she encounters Parker Robbins and his dark magic-imbued hood, as well as perhaps even the lord of Marvel's underworld himself, Mephisto.

As for Tony, who perished in 2019's Avengers: Endgame, the MCU is keeping his memory alive in several other ways beyond Riri Williams' adventures. For example, despite all the changes Val made to Avengers Tower after buying it, she still kept Tony's bar intact. And in Vision Quest, the amnesiac synthezoid will reportedly encounter a resurrected Ultron, Tony's accidentally genocidal robotic creation.

Marvel Television's Ironheart dropped its first three episodes on Disney+ on July 24. The subsequent and final trio of installments premieres the following Tuesday on July 1. Ironheart also stars Anthony Ramos, Lyric Ross, and Alden Eirenreich.

What Is Ironheart and Iron Man’s Relationship Like in the Comics?

In the Marvel Universe, as it is known in the comic books, Riri Williams, created in 2016 by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato for Invincible Iron Man #3, was inspired by Iron Man from an early age. 

When she is 15, she constructs her own interpretation of Stark's armor, which is impressive enough to catch the attention of the man himself. Tony, as well as an artificially intelligent, holographic recreation of him, pledge their support to Riri and advise her as she works to become the superhero known as Ironheart.

Later on, Williams develops her own, more personalized AI assistant, NATALIE. The digital wingwoman was directly modeled after Natalie Washington, Riri's childhood best friend who, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Integrating Washington's likeness and personality into her armor is Ironheart's way of memorializing her departed companion.

In the MCU, Ironheart will skip over all that business with the Tony Stark hologram (Robert Downey Jr. doesn't come cheap!) and has Riri program her own original NATALIE AI. The paths of MCU Riri and the Riri that exists in the comics will continue to diverge in other ways, but the shadow of Iron Man may always seem inescapable.