With Ironheart we get the Iron Man successor, gearing up to join the MCU. If you want to know what you can expect, since the last couple Marvel releases have been disappointing, here is the release date for Ironheart, as well as everything else we know so far.
If you are anything like me, you probably didn't even know a superhero named Ironheart existed, before Marvel released their projects for the upcoming Phase 5 at ComicCon. Now we finally got a release date for the new Marvel series as well.
Since the death of Iron Man in the second entry of Infinity War left a gaping hole in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, people have been wondering who might become his successor. Even though Spider-Man and Iron Man had some kind of mentor-successor relationship, that doesn't really cut it. Spider-Man is his own thing!
But with Ironheart it seems the MCU will get their new Iron Man, even if it is only in style. Her real name is Riri Williams , a young inventor and protégé of Tony Stark (at least in the comics) that builds her own Iron Man suit. In the comics, she kind of is to Iron Man, what Nightwing is to Batman. Someone that might be able to carry on the work of their mentor, like both did in the comics at some point, when their mentor was out of order.
So Ironheart already continued Tony Stark's legacy in the comics. Now, how are they going to include that dynamic in the MCU? Tough one.
We will have to wait and see how they're gonna handle the matter on the show, but what is the release date for Ironheart? Careful, you might want to sit down for that one.
Ironheart: Release Date Is Way Beyond What People Expected
Regarding the release date for Ironheart, it appears that the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes took a big toll on this one. Instead of the supposed release in Fall of 2023, fans will have to wait all the way until September 3, 2025, before the show comes out.
Ironheart has now been listed for a September 3rd, 2025 release date pic.twitter.com/K4024p9upf
— ScreenTime (@screentime) October 6, 2023
This might seem like a typo at first, but the tweet is already a couple of days old and they still haven't changed it. While this might be painful for some, others just demand they cancel the show altogether with how things are going.
Ironheart: Plot
In the comics, Riri Williams is a genius inventor that shows great promise and grows into the role of Ironheart through the mentorship of Tony Stark... well, that won't happen. Maybe they are going to include that through flashbacks that happened off-screen?
As her first appearance already happened in the new Black Panther: Wakanda Forever movie, they might also use Wakanda's technological power to grow and develop her into the Ironheart persona. How exactly she would be related to Iron Man in that case, is not quite clear, so we will have to wait and see.
Regarding an antagonist, The Hood, a crime boss with magical powers, has already been confirmed as the main villain, played by Anthony Ramos. So we will probably get the iconic, "has to establish herself as a superhero and how to handle her abilities potline" learning how to take responsibility, you know the drill.
#Ironheart and #IronMan testing their suits pic.twitter.com/VGaRS1NZN0
— ScreenTime (@screentime) October 19, 2022
Talking about the cast, here is what we know so far about that.
Ironheart: Cast
So far, we know these actors will be featured in the series:
| Dominique Thorn | Ironheart |
| Anthony Ramos | Parker Robbins a.k.a. The Hood |
Lyric Ross | Williams' best friend |
| Many Montana | unknown |
| Shea Couleé | unknown |
| Harper Anthony | unknown |
There is also some speculation that Don Cheadle might reprise his role as War Machine in this series, as well as some characters from Wakanda we might recognize. That would make a lot of sense, to be honest. War Machine could show her the ropes, and her first appearance happens to be in the new Black Panther movie, so that checks out.
The Origins of Ironheart
We already gave you a basic explanation of who Riri Williams, aka Ironheart is in the comics, so how about a more in depth explanation now that you got the basics down?
In the comics , Riri Williams is a teenage genius who earned herself a scholarship at the MIT. Using campus resources, Riri reverse-engineers her own Iron Man suit in her dorm, capturing the attention of Tony Stark.
Tony the endorses the young prodigy as a successor, and she quickly has to step up, when Tony falls into a coma after a catastrophic battle. Assuming the mantle of Ironheart, Riri carves her place among Marvel heroes, tackling various threats while exploring her identity and the legacy of Iron Man.
In the show, Iron Man is already gone, and Stephen Broussard, a producer at Marvel, confirmed that he's not coming back, so they might have to give her a different origin story altogether.