After debuting in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams is set to take on her own solo adventure in the Disney Plus streaming series Ironheart. While a new listing at the U.S. Copyright Office points to it being quite a while before that series hits the streamer, some new information about the series has come to light.
Though it’s not set to stream for another 2 years, a new synopsis for Ironheart–along with some additions to the main cast–provides a little more insight into what to expect. The series is described as one “in which charming teenage super genius Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) returns from MIT to her hometown of Chicago in her iron suit and begins to unravel threads that bring danger and adventure to her doorstep.” While it doesn’t give away much, the synopsis does at least place the setting of Ironheart AFTER the events of Wakanda Forever, clearing up a subject about which there had been some debate.
The filing also fills out the series’ cast a bit more though it’s not quite as revealing as a similar filing that was made for Daredevil: Born Again. Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Alden Ehrenreich is listed as Joe McGillicuddy which is almost certainly an alias or throwaway name as it’s widely believed the actor had been cast as Ezekiel Stane, the son of Jeff Bridges‘ Iron Man villain, Obadiah Stane. Manny Montana (Cousin John) and Shea Couleé (Slug) look to be members of the crew of Anthony Ramos’ Parker Robins with Couleé likely a version of Marvel Comics Ulysses Lugman and Montana a version of John King, the actual cousin of Robbins.
Anji White looks to be portraying Riri’s mother, Ronnie, while Lyric Ross looks to be taking on the role of Riri’s best friend, Natalie, who was shot and killed in front of Riri when she was 13. The Many Saints of Newark actor Matthew Elam is listed as Xavier Washington, who seems to be an original character and may end up as a love interest for Riri. Interestingly enough, Regan Aliyah, who joined the cast in August of 2022 and was rumored to be set to portray Zelma Stanton, is absent from the cast list.
Despite their efforts to conceal his identity here, there’s really no mystery to Sacha Baron Cohen’s “mystery man” as it’s been widely reported he will be portraying Mephisto. His presence–and that of the Hood–sets up Ironheart as a unique magic vs. science that should thrill fans when it arrives in 2025.
