Though the distinctions are increasingly becoming blurred and irrelevant, we're moving on from Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and embarking on Phase 6 (whatever that means). And the entry that closes the chapter on Phase 5 is not Thunderbolts*, the MCU movie most recently in theaters, but, rather, the TV series Ironheart. (A film, Fantastic Four: First Steps, will be the opening of Phase 6.) But just who is Ironheart, anyway? Have we seen her in the MCU before — and is she related to Iron Man?
Ironheart, a six-episode miniseries on Disney+, follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a teenager who recently returned home to Chicago after a short stint at MIT. (It's good to see the MCU branch away from the Avengers Tower in New York City — Chicago has plenty of tall buildings that could be Marvel-ified in the future!) The first batch of episodes were available for streaming on June 24, and the final three joins them on July 1. For MCU fans who don't 100% remember their comics chronology, here's what's important to know.
Is Ironheart Related to Iron Man?
Not in the way you'd think — Riri has no formal connection to Tony Stark, Stark Industries or any subsequent heroes donning Iron Man-like suits. (Sorry, War Machine.)
Riri is, however, a gifted inventor in her own right, hence the admission to MIT. So she's related to Iron Man in that she's more of a fan, and she decides she can figure out how to build her own suit. (She doesn't even have an Arc Reactor! That's talent.) Unlike Spider-Man — who was straight-out gifted his suit by Tony Stark, who then mentored him in the ways of super heroism — Riri did it all on her own.
Now, how she uses that suit might not exactly be what Stark had in mind when he was inventing them. Suit parts are expensive, and she's not being funded by a huge corporation. Her pursuit of money for machine parts puts a lot of the drama of the series into motion. Maybe she could've used a mentor (or investor) after all.
How is Ironheart connected to the greater MCU?
Just because Ironheart and Iron Man never had a meeting of the minds doesn't mean that Riri has never shown up in the MCU before. Fans may remember her showing up in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In that film, a conflict ensued when an expedition team from the United States uses a vibranium detector to uncover the vibranium-rich underwater kingdom of Talokan. The leader of the Talokan blamed Wakanda for the intrusion and demanded the detector. When Wakanda's Shuri and Okoye track it down, their search took them to MIT — it was Riri who'd invented it. When Riri decides to help Wakanda fight Talokan at the end of the film, you can see her first go at creating an Iron Man suit.
That's not the only connection Ironheart has with the greater MCU: One of the antagonists is revealed to be Zeke Stane (played by Alden Ehrenreich). Does that last name seem familiar? It should, because this one does have a direct connection to Iron Man. In that first Iron Man film, the villain (played by Jeff Bridges) was Obadiah Stane — Zeke's father. So there is an Iron Man relationship after all.
And, on a more thematic level, there's a connection between the way Stark and Williams relate to their suits. There's usually some manner of in-suit artificial intelligence that helps the wearer navigate and make the best use of the tech. For Stark, that intelligence turned into Vision, who became an actual entity in the real world. For Riri, it's the reverse: Her AI started off as a real person IRL — her best friend, Natalie — and then Riri manifested her as the Neuro Autonomous Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity (or N.A.T.A.L.I.E).
Where else can you find Ironheart?
Of course, you can find her in the comics: Her first appearance is Invincible Iron Man Vol. 3, and you can see what her story is like when she doesn't have to contend with MCU continuity (although comics continuity is its own thing).
Or, if there are little MCU fans in the house, Ironheart has already been a player in the Marvel Rising franchise. A series of animated specials on Disney+, Marvel Rising isn't in continuity with the greater MCU. But it does get around to using characters that have not yet been brought into the MCU fold, including Squirrel Girl and Inferno (and also beat the MCU to the punch in using characters like America Chavez, Ghost-Spider and Ms. Marvel). Riri gets to star in her own special, Heart of Iron, in an adventure that sees her facing off against Hala the Accuser. And in that one, Stark does have some sort of mentor role, making more of a connection between Ironheart and Iron Man.
Marisa (she/her) has covered all things parenting, from the postpartum period through the empty nest, for Good Housekeeping since 2018; previously, she wrote about parents and families at Parents and Working Mother. She lives with her toy-collecting husband and daughter in Brooklyn, where she can be found helping out her team at bar trivia or posting about movies on Twitter and Bluesky.
