- calendar_today September 1, 2025
Ironheart to Continue Riri Williams’ Story from Wakanda Forever
Ryan Coogler has had a good year: Sinners, his latest movie, is doing surprisingly well at the box office; now, Marvel has released the first trailer for the creator’s next project, a limited series based on the superhero Ironheart, premiering in June 2025.
The series will consist of six episodes and is described as set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It will star Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, a teenage inventor known as Ironheart in the comics, in which she serves as a protégé of Tony Stark. The series will be the last to be released as part of MCU Phase Five.
Announced in December 2020, Ironheart was initially scheduled for a 2023 release. However, Marvel revised its longer-term plans, electing to reduce the quantity of new content that it would release each year. In part, this shift was because of the problem of market saturation; the premiere has now been pushed back to this summer. In a trailer first teased at the 2024 D23 convention, the series was referred to as “a crime show with an Iron Man twist at the center,” suggesting that it might be darker and more grounded than most series within the MCU.
Riri Williams first appeared in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which depicted her as becoming involved in a war against Namor and his race of blue-skinned mutants after creating a vibranium detector at MIT. The two met and developed a friendship over their shared love of science, and by the end of the movie, Riri had helped Wakanda build and don an armored suit like Iron Man’s so that they could protect themselves against the underwater invaders. When the war ended, Riri was forced to leave the suit with the Wakandans before returning to her life at MIT.
A Convergence of Tech and Sorcery
Ironheart takes place only months after the events of Wakanda Forever. In the official synopsis, “Set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart pits technology against magic when Riri—determined to make her mark on the world—returns to her hometown of Chicago. Her unique take on building iron suits is brilliant, but in pursuit of her ambitions, she finds herself wrapped up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins, aka “The Hood” (Anthony Ramos).”
In the cast of the series are Lyric Ross as Riri’s best friend, Natalie Washington; Alden Ehrenreich as Joe McGillicuddy; Manny Montana as Cousin John; Matthew Elam as Xavier Washington; and Anji White as Riri’s mother, Ronnie. Another character, Slug, will be played by Shea Coulée. Jim Rash will also reprise the role of the dean of MIT from 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, while Sacha Baron Cohen will also have a role; Marvel has not yet revealed any specifics about his character.
The newly released trailer for Ironheart immediately thrusts the audience into a high-pressure scenario. It opens with Riri arriving at a now-defunct pizza restaurant, only to find herself locked in an elevator filled with poison gas and given two minutes to escape. The entire sequence is an elaborate trap, which she soon discovers was set by The Hood as an interview for her unique set of skills. The Hood, who can be heard over the elevator’s intercom, threatens to kill Riri if she does not comply, forcing her to hack into a device on the floor that contains a gas mask. Riri, however, quickly rebels against this and, instead, finds her creative solution to the predicament.
Satisfied with Riri’s solution, The Hood invites her to join him on a vague (but, it is strongly implied, illicit) endeavor. She, wanting to show that she is capable and build something truly “iconic,” acquiesces to his offer without thinking twice. Her friends are not so easily swayed, with Natalie warning Riri that The Hood’s words may have more than one meaning. She may be right, particularly as The Hood tells Riri in the trailer that “Anyone who has ever accomplished anything iconic in life has had to do some questionable things to get it done.”
It will be interesting to see just how far Riri is willing to go to prove her worth and how she justifies any decisions that she makes along the way. The first three episodes of Ironheart will be available on Disney+ on June 24, 2025, with additional installments coming out each week thereafter. There has been no word on a potential second season of the series; if it is greenlit, it will depend on the performance of the first batch of episodes. For now, fans of Ironheart can peruse the recently released trailer as well as a new behind-the-scenes featurette.
Marvel fans are anxiously awaiting the first few episodes of Ironheart, which, at least according to the first trailer, could make for an action-packed series focusing on a unique lead character.
