Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Ironheart

  • ‘Ironheart’: Dominique Thorne Reveals How She Became Riri Williams

    ‘Ironheart’: Dominique Thorne Reveals How She Became Riri Williams

    One of Marvel’s newest stars is opening up about her unique casting experience. Dominique Thorne was announced as the MCU’s next iron-clad heroine at Disney’s Investor’s Day last December, with the young actress set to play Riri Williams in Disney+’s Ironheart series. Best known for her role in Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed film If Beale Street Could Talk and the recently released Judas and the Black Messiah, Thorne’s casting came as a surprise to many. While some fans may have expected the Ironheart announcement, nobody was quite prepared for a casting to reveal to happen so early in the show’s marketing process. As it turns out, Thorne wasn’t really expecting the announcement so early either. The talented performer opened up to Empire about her audition-free casting process:

    I was at home in Delaware and I got a call asking if I would like to play this role. It was the best phone call I could have ever received. I was so shocked, in fact, that there was a considerable lag in the conversation! I was waiting for them to say, like, ‘Oh, we’ll send you the sides’, or, ‘Get your tape over to us.’ But there was none of that. It was just like, ‘Would you like to do this?’ It was probably the most unique experience I’ve ever had because there was no audition at all.

    Riri Williams is a relatively new character in the Marvel mythos. She got introduced by Brian Michael Bendis in 2015, the same man who created Miles Morales a few years prior. Williams is a teenage prodigy at MIT, who creates a new version of the Iron Man armor. She later takes up her superhero mantle. She has since appeared in various animated Marvel projects, and it was only a matter of time before she found her way to the MCU. The Ironheart series is currently in pre-production, with no official confirmation of a release date but with casting already in place, one could expect to see Dominique Thorne pop up on their screens sooner rather than later.

    Source: Empire

  • Marvel Match-Up With 6 Confirmed Production Companies

    Marvel Match-Up With 6 Confirmed Production Companies

    A couple of months ago, Arlyn Murphy dug up what she believed to be 3 newly formed Marvel Studios production companies: Blueberry Waffles, Log Jam and Standoffish. Last month, just ahead of Disney’s Investor Day, we also discovered that Frequent Productions was set to begin work in Atlanta sometime this year and were able to confirm it as a Marvel Studios project. Today, I can confirm that Blueberry Waffles, Log Jam and Standoffish are all 100% Marvel Studios projects, joining Frequent, Grass-Fed and Solve Everything as production companies for upcoming Marvel Studios projects. With Marvel Studios having recently announced a slew of new projects, it seemed like a great time to try to make some sense out of which company each project might be!

    While Marvel Studios has a lot of upcoming projects, there are 6 without production company pairs. (5 if we’re being honest because Solve Everything is DEFINITELY Fantastic Four). As it turns out, there are also 6 production companies we haven’t paired up with films (again, it’s really 5). With that out there, it seemed time to have a little fun trying to work out the best pairings between production company and project and…solve everything.

    Blueberry Waffles                                                                Armor Wars

    Frequent                                                                              Blade

    Grass-Fed                                                                            Fantastic Four

    Log Jam                                                                               I Am Groot

    Solve Everything                                                                 Ironheart

    Standoffish                                                                          Secret Invasion

    As stated above and described in detail here, it’s pretty easy to pair up Solve Everything with Fantastic Four. Beyond that, the next most likely pairing is between Log Jam and I Am Groot, a series of original shorts separate from the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. During Investor Day, Kevin Feige mentioned that they would be filming the Holiday Special during production on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, meaning it wouldn’t need to be given its own production company, whereas I Am Groot, as a separate entity, would.

    As we continue on, the only certainty is increased uncertainty in which goes with which. Early on in Riri Williams’ Marvel Comics appearances, her mother made a reference to her often making breakfast for Riri and having it go uneaten as she was always more interested in tinkering in her shop (I think I’m remembering that correctly. For the sake of argument, let’s make that a really good reason to pair Blueberry Waffles with Ironheart. Arlyn’s original premise was this it might be pointing towards a Young Avengers project, but that’s clearly farther off now and Ironheart is coming soon, so it could work.

    While I can’t make the case for it to be as good of a fit as the ones already paired up above, Standoffish could pair with Secret Invasion, though I can also make a case for Grass-Fed pairing up with Secret Invasion as a reference to the four Skrulls who did time on Earth as cows following their run-in with the Fantastic Four. However, standoffish could absolutely refer to Fury’s personality, making this a bit of a toss-up. Bringing Blade into the mix muddies the water even further, but even Fury is more personable than Blade, so Grass-Fed for Secret Invasion and Standoffish for Blade as the most current, but totally wild guess.

    Don Cheadle's War Machine Is Back in Marvel's Armor Wars Disney+ Series

    That leaves Frequent to pair with Armor Wars and no good connection. Often times, as was the case with Pandemic Productions and Static Productions (the production companies behind The Falcon and The Winter Solder and WandaVision, respectively), the companies aren’t comic book references but refer very specifically to the events of the series. Perhaps that’s the case here or perhaps it’s a joke in reference to how often Tony’s armor is compromised in the comics.

    Whatever the case, this important news here is in that following up on the newly formed production companies, I was able to confirm that they are all for Marvel Studios projects, meaning production on all of them is likely to get underway sometime this year.

     

     

  • Deep Thoughts: One Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar

    Deep Thoughts: One Hypothetical Marvel Studios 2022 Release Calendar

    Earlier this week, we looked at one hypothetical 2021 release calendar for Marvel Studios. That possible calendar saw Hawkeye wrapped up on Christmas Eve 2021 and it seemed like a bad place to stop thinking. Following the same premise of trying to get new content out on as many Fridays as possible, here’s one totally made up and hypothetical way Marvel Studios could do that in 2022!

    ***NOTE***

    Please read and share responsibly and don’t latch your hopes and dreams onto this. Don’t take it seriously and don’t start marking your calendars. This is one possible option with the only real intention behind it being to see if it could be done well.

     

    After originally thinking Hawkeye would carry over into 2022, we learned that the series is only 6-episodes, meaning it will conclude on Christmas Eve 2021 and they’ll probably skip out on New Year’s Eve content. If we assume Marvel Studios follows a similar start to WandaVision in that it allows the studios to return from the 2-week holiday layoff, get whatever press events and social media teases up and running in the week leading up to release, the 2022 Marvel Studios onslaught will kick off on January 14th!

    She-Hulk is going to get to kick off 2022 in style. The Tatiana Maslany-led comedy series begins filming in Atlanta in March 2021 and could easily turn episodes around in time for a mid-January 2022 release. The series is filming for quite a long time and we’ve seen some information that leads us to believe they could be filming as many as 10 episodes next year. Whether that is one long season or two is unknown, but should it be one, long 10 episode season, it could run from January 14th until March 11th, which fits nicely in our big puzzle.

    Should Marvel Studios continue their Marvel Studios Legends series, they could stream a Doctor Strange episode the weekend of March 18th, one week ahead of the release of Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness. By the time this film comes out, it’ll have been 6 years since the first film and almost 3 years since we last saw the Sorcerer Supreme on the big screen, so it wouldn’t be the worst idea to catch fans up and tell the story to new audiences. We would also expect the final trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder and the first trailer for Black Panther II to be released ahead of this so theater audiences could preview them ahead of the film.

    The sledding gets a little rougher here with Moon Knight potentially running into the theatrical release of Thor: Love and Thunder. Thankfully, I am reminded that Season 1 of The Mandalorian took a Friday off so that audiences could head to theaters to catch The Rise of Skywalker (big high five to The Machine for helping me get out of my mental rut). That same idea could work here and who knows, maybe a film that includes a God Butcher could unexpectedly tie-in to a series about a guy working as the Earthly avatar of an Egyptian god…

     

    Thor: Love and Thunder promises to be an absolutely wild ride. Taika Waititi is back and has made no bones about the fact that he’s turning everything up on this one. Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is the first Marvel Studios solo character to move beyond the trilogy structure meaning all bets are off. Natalie Portman returning as Jane Foster to become the Mighty Thor is the biggest news, but adding Academy Award Winner Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher, bringing back Jamie Alexander as Lady Sif alongside Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie AND having the Guardians of the Galaxy along for the ride make this the studio’s biggest non-Avengers film to date.

    An episode of Marvel Studios Legends for Nick Fury and Talos seems like a must leading into Secret Invasion. We know Talos has posed as Fury in the past and it’d be alright if Marvel Studios cleared some of that up heading into Secret Invasion and that could stream on May 13th, one week after Thor 4 hits theaters.  Secret Invasion is still in the earliest stages of development, so there’s no word on an episode count, but for the purposes of this calendar, we’re sticking with the standard six; hypothetically, if Secret Invasion kicked off a six-week run on May 20th, it would conclude on June 24th, just ahead of Black Panther II.

     

    It’s still tough to think about a sequel to Black Panther happening without Chadwick Boseman, but Marvel Studios has a plan and a date. An episode of Marvel Studios Legends ahead of this film could serve not only as a tribute to Boseman, but also as a way to highlight whomever Marvel Studios has chosen to focus on from the World of Wakanda. Black Panther II is currently set to premiere on July 8th, which means it would be accompanied in theaters by trailers for Blade and Captain Marvel 2.

     

    While there was no direct indication that What If…? Season 2 would stream in 2022, Kevin Feige did mention in an interview in December of 2019 that they were already hard at work on the 10-episode second season. As was the case with What If…? Season 1, there’s no indication of whether or not Marvel Studios will stream a new episode of the animated series each week or drop them all at once, but given the nature of the premise is to slot new content on as many Fridays as possible, I’m going with the former.

    Like Moon Knight before it, Ironheart could be headed for a one-week hiatus to get Blade in theaters on October 7th (something that is yet to be announced by the studio but we’ve included in our little experiment). Marvel Studios could get Riri Williams’ story started on September 23rd and 30th before taking the week of October 7th off for Blade.

    Though there’s no word on when Blade would hit theaters, the official Disney Investor Day Fact Sheet lists it chronologically ahead of Captain Marvel 2 and Disney still has the October 7, 2022 date set aside for a Marvel Studios project. With those things in mind and for the purpose of our hypothetical calendar, we are putting Blade right here.

    Ironheart returns from its one-week hiatus and jumps back into action, concluding its run with a 4-episode stretch from October 14th through November 4th.

    Following the pattern of Marvel Studios preparing audiences for the return of popular characters through episodes of Marvel Studios Legends, a Captain Marvel episode could stream on November 4th. With Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan joining Carol Danvers in the film, a Legends episode could prove pretty useful to catch fans up to speed ahead of the November 11th debut of Captain Marvel 2.

    While he’s never been the centerpiece of his own project, James Rhodes has been in 7 Marvel Studios films. His story is one worth recapping in a War Machine episode of Marvel Studios Legends on November 18th one week before he takes the lead in Armor Wars!

    Breaking from the mold just a little here, the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special can debut on Thanksgiving, which is the kickoff of the U.S. holiday season.

    Boom, you looking for this! The final Marvel Studios project of 2022, Armor Wars, could begin its six-week run on November 25th and run right up until the final Friday of the year on December 30th.

    Piecing this one together meant taking quite a few liberties, including adding a film that has not officially been given a date. But again, the working premise here was to get new Marvel Studios content on as many Fridays as possible. As things developed, keeping streaming series from dropping new episodes on the same days as films would make their theatrical debuts became a secondary concern and that meant having to color outside of the lines a few times. However, it looks like we mish-mashed together a way to get 51 weeks of Marvel Studios content in 2022!

  • Iron Man’s Legacy: How ‘Armor Wars’ Can End Tony’s Open Threads

    Iron Man’s Legacy: How ‘Armor Wars’ Can End Tony’s Open Threads

    Disney’s Investors Day has unveiled a variety of brand new shows. Among them, we got the unveiling of an adaptation of Armor Wars. After Tony’s death during the events of Avengers: Endgame, it seems that his technology was still being shared across the world. Now, it is up to Rhodey in his War Machine suit to make things right. Now, the only question is how exactly they will tackle this iconic story without the hero that defined it. Well, Spider-Man: Far From Home kind of kicked off the question if there is a necessity for a new “Iron Man”. Peter learned the importance of growing into his own as Spider-Man, taking the lessons he learned from Tony but not letting them define him.  In a way, Armor Wars may carry that message forward to the rest of the world.

     

     

    We have no idea what exactly this story is going to explore. The original storyline ran from 1987 to 1988 over seven issues. David Michelinie and Bob Layton developed a story about Tony’s technology getting stolen by his worse enemies. Justin Hammer, who many might remember from Iron Man 2, enlisted Spymaster to steal his technology and create brand new armor designs. Iron Man starts a war with many armored villains to ensure no one can use his technology. Even SHIELD created an armored unit called Mandroid’s, which certainly didn’t leave a great impression on Tony. He also comes into conflict with Jack Taggart, also known as Firepower. We met this character in Iron Man 3, who exploded due to an overdose of Extremis at the TCL Chinese Theatre.

    There aren’t many players left to flesh out the original storyline. SHIELD hasn’t been around in the mainline MCU since Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Taggart blew up in the last solo film for the character. So, only Hammer remains, who was last seen in the short All Hail The King. It wouldn’t be a surprise he has already left prison and restart his company as the primary weapon’s dealer, as Stark Tech is still exploring other markets. Now, I believe he will have a new partner that helps him rebuild Hammer Industries, the son of Obediah Stane, Ezekiel.

     

     

    Ezekiel, or Zeke as everyone calls him, is pretty much the MCU’s Mark Zuckerberg. He is a young entrepreneur, just started his company straight out of college. Even with his father’s legacy, many did not expect his sudden rise in popularity and fortune. He would never give away his secret, but he seemed oddly fascinated with entering the weapon’s market. After reviving Hammer Industries, he suddenly introduces the world to a brand new type of armor, something familiar. He says it is to keep Tony’s legacy alive, but Rhodey knows something is up. Suddenly, various armored criminals are starting to cause havoc across the world, and War Machine is forced into action to ensure they do not stain what was left behind by his best friend.

    Along the way, he runs into Riri Williams, who he believed to have also stolen Stark Tech to build her Ironheart armor. She unveils that it is her technology, so he takes her under his wing to ensure her safety as an onslaught of these tech-based villains is after her. They seem to be gathering all kinds of technology for some reason. Crimson Dynamo, Titanium Man, Beetle, Spymaster, and many more seem to be popping out of the woodwork. The armors keep regenerating with nanotech, so they keep regenerating. It also seems their pilots have the Extremis equipped, as their limbs grow back instantly. After a long battle, Rhodey and Riri finally won. They can pry open one of the armors only to realize they have been empty all this time. It wasn’t the Extremis healing them. The whole thing was just a ruse. Each and everyone was fake. At that moment, a familiar voice starts to echo out of the armor’s speakers.

     

     

    Ezekiel wasn’t the wunderkind we all assumed he was. He wasn’t able to carry on his father’s legacy. Well, that was until he found a discarded piece of armor still containing the remnants of Ultron. Together, they started to find a way to get their revenge on Tony even after his death. They would use his armor tech, which was ingrained into Ultron, to undo everything Stark Tech has done. To besmirch his legacy, they revived the House Party Protocol from Iron Man 3, which was still active on suits that Tony constructed as a way to cope with the fight against Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. Luckily, Rhodey realized that they are still connected to the Clean Slate Protocol, but Ultron took control over his armor.

    However, Riri’s armor was the only one not connected to Stark Tech, which meant she was unaffected. As such, she was their only hope to activate the protocol before Ultron could enable his Imperative. He wasn’t there to help Zeke. Ultron just used him to enact his plans of a metallic future, but he underestimated that someone would be able to keep up with Tony’s tech. In a way, he underestimated the next generation that would continue the legacy in their way. Rhodey finally can take a break and decides to support Riri in forging her path.

  • War Machine Taking Center Stage in ‘Armor Wars’ Disney+ Series

    War Machine Taking Center Stage in ‘Armor Wars’ Disney+ Series

    Looks like War Machine will finally get his own series, as Marvel Studios announced Armor Wars. It will focus on the iconic series of Tony’s biggest fear. It is an interesting story to tackle that will most likely tie-in with the Ironheart series that was announced right before. This could also mean that the amours destroyed in Iron Man 3 may have found a new owner who took his time putting them back together. My money would also be on the return of Ultron, who may take control of them but it is only speculation as of now.

  • Iron Man’s Legacy Lives on in Disney+’s ‘Ironheart’

    Iron Man’s Legacy Lives on in Disney+’s ‘Ironheart’

    Well, it looks like the rumors were true. as a new Ironheart Disney+ series was announced by Kevin Feige. Not just that but Dominique Thorne has been cast as Riri Williams. Not much is known about the show’s direction but it seems like they’ll stick close to the comics. A while back I had the theory she might replace Iron Lad, as the character to have a connection with Kang. The fact she is getting a series of her own might add more relevance to that theory, so it will be interesting to see how things develop.

  • Ironheart

    Ironheart

    Premiere: June 24, 2025

    In 2023, Marvel Studios Ironheart will stream on Disney Plus and tell the story of genius inventor Riri Williams. Williams will be played by Dominique Thorne and it is expected her story will spin out of one of Marvel Studios’ feature films and also likely tie into Armor Wars.

    In late April 2021 THR confirmed that Chinaka Hodge would be joining the Ironheart production as its head writer, with the writers’ room for the show set to begin working the following month. It was also reported that the show would have six episodes, with a still undisclosed expected runtime.

    With news that the series would start production around April 2022, Marvel seemed to be eyeing an early 2023 release date; however, despite having completed production on time, the series will not be released until Fall 2025.

    On October 30, 2024 it was announced that Ironheart was scheduled to debut on Disney Plus on June 24, 2025.

    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.

    -Synopsis for Ironheart

    A trade report in early February 2022 announced that Anthony Ramos, of Hamilton and In The Heights fame, would be making his MCU debut in Ironheart. Soon after Lyric Ross was added to the cast, as was Harper Anthony, both in undisclosed roles. Directors Sam Beiley and Angela Barnes became attached to the series in April 2022 with Manny Montana (Good Girls) joining the cast as a series regular in June.

    The series would reportedly start filming in the Chicago area in June 2022, something somewhat confirmed with the release of on-set photos in July.

    Alden Ehrenreich (Solo) was announced as being part of the cast in July 2022, with Shea Couleé soon following. Both are playing unknown roles in the series. Despite several leaks, it wasn’t until September 2022, at D23, that there was official confirmation that Ramos would be playing Parker Robbins AKA The Hood.

    Regan Aliyah, who joined the cast at the end of August, was rumored to be playing Zelma Stanton, something that would certainly play into the magical approach that the project seems to be getting. Another character that seems to be making its MCU debut, following years of speculation as to in what project it would turn up first, is none other than Mephisto. Sacha Baron Cohen is bringing the extra-dimensional Demon to life, in what should be a multi-year, multi-project type of role for the British actor. A few days later it would be Paul Calderón‘s and Cree Summer‘s turn to be confirmed as part of the cast for the Disney+ series.

    Cast

    • Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart
    • Anthony Ramos as Parker Robbins/The Hood
    • Shakira Barrera in an unknown role
    • Saha Baron Cohen as Mephisto
    • Alden Ehrenreich as “Joe McGillicuddy” (likely Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane)
    • Anji White as Ronnie Williams
    • Matthew James Elam as Xavier Washington
    • Lyric Ross as Natalie Washington
    • Regan Aliyah in an unknown role
    • Harper Anthony in an unknown role
    • Manny Montana as Cousin John
    • Shea Couleé as Slug
    • Paul Calderón an unknown role
  • ‘YOUNG AVENGERS’ May Be On Deck for Marvel Studios

    ‘YOUNG AVENGERS’ May Be On Deck for Marvel Studios

    On October 16th, Disney created 3 new production companies. The fact that they were created on the same day might point towards them being Marvel Studios properties. Marvel Studios has a track record of creating production companies in bulk where as other branches of Disney usually produce them one at a time. For example, as revealed by Murphy’s Multiverse, Grass-Fed Productions and Solve Everything Productions were created on the same day as were many of Marvel Studios upcoming Disney+ projects. While we don’t know that they are Marvel Studios production companies, we did find some additional evidence that backs up the possibility that they are Marvel Studios productions, though it wasn’t enough to make us 100% certain. So what are they?   The production companies are Standoffish Productions, Blueberry Waffles Productions , and Log Jam Productions. While we can’t tie them to any Marvel property, we do have some ideas.

    While this is a very loose connection, we think we have an idea of what one of the production companies could possibly be. Blueberry Waffles, here is our explanation. We have seen in Young Avengers Volume 2, written by Kieron Gillen and launched in January of 2013, that the team continuously meets up at Joe’s Diner for breakfast. In one of the issues, Kid Loki eats blueberry pancakes. As I like to say, waffles are just pancakes with abs, so this could be the production we are looking for. While we already know Marvel is developing a Young Avengers project, this could be them moving forward with the project. We are not 100% sure, but this could the answer.

     

     

    While this is some pretty shaky evidence, we do know that Marvel Studios is developing many other projects like Blade (he stakes vampires with wood, so Log Jam…get it?), Ghost Rider, Illuminati, Ironheart, Secret Invasion and Secret Warriors, in addition to Young Avengers, so there are plenty of reasonable options for these production companies. Keep in mind that not all production companies are tied straight to the comic books. For example, WandaVision was Static Productions. Nobody would have ever found that one out. It is the same situation for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier streaming series that was Pandemic Productions. Until we have further proof, all we can do is keep this in the back of our minds as something to think about and with Marvel Studios slate already pretty full, it would be a while before any of these projects got up and running.