By George & Josh Bate
The following is non-spoiler review of all six episodes of Marvel Studios’ Ironheart
In 2022, Chicago-born genius inventor Riri Williams made her live-action debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Ryan Coogler’s sequel to the Best Picture nominee accomplished quite a bit, from chronicling the aftermath of T’Challa’s death to introducing an entire new civilization with the Talokan and Namor to the fold, but it also served as a soft-launch for a spin-off series focused on Riri Williams and her Tony Stark-inspired suit of armor. Now, several years later, as Disney CEO Bob Iger purports a new era for the MCU characterized by quality over quantity, the series Ironheart debuts on Disney+ and makes for decent viewing salvaged by several inspired elements and a strong ending.
Ironheart follows the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and tracks Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as she returns to Chicago following her expulsion from MIT. Determined to earn enough money to complete her iron suit, Riri joins the crew of Parker Robbins / The Hood (Anthony Ramos), a criminal who dons a hood that allows him to tap into mysterious powers. Over time, Riri comes to realize the dangers posed by The Hood and seeks to distance herself from the criminal leader, while she simultaneously struggles with the grief of losing her best friend Natalie (Lyric Ross).
With a reported start of principal photography in June 2022, prior to Riri’s debut appearance in Wakanda Forever, Ironheart has taken a number of years to make its way to Disney+. In those few years, the landscape of streaming has drastically changed, which has seen Marvel Studios cut down on their output in favor of higher quality films and shows. Bob Iger pinpointed Thunderbolts*, a film that was met with universal praise despite stumbling at the box office, as “the first and best example” of this new approach from Marvel Studios. Despite the early success of this new direction, remnants of the past linger, one of which is Ironheart. In watching a series largely devoid of on-screen magic (ironic considering the plot’s focus on the intersection of tech and magic), one can’t help but think Ironheart is a reflection of the somewhat diluted MCU that was, rather than of the more promising franchise looking ahead.
Ironheart begins on shaky footing, with a jumbled first episode that poorly orients the audience to Riri Williams, her personality, and motivations. The series, especially the beginning episodes, repeatedly tell us who Riri is, rather than show us. Viewers will quickly lose count at the number of times Dominique Thorne’s lead character is referred to as a “genius” and, besides a few remarks about her desire to be “iconic,” Riri persists as a thinly developed character with vague motivations. The driving force behind the story is Riri’s plan to construct an iron suit, which she briefly explains as coming from a desire to help people, although frustratingly little else about her motivation is conveyed.
In the absence of interesting provocation for her story, much of Riri’s characterization revolves around the grief from losing her friend Natalie, played by This is Us’ Lyric Ross. Scattered flashbacks, primarily of a single event, offer insight into the close bond Riri and Natalie once had, which was shattered upon Natalie’s sudden death following a drive-by shooting. As she struggles to overcome the loss, Riri’s development of her iron suit accidentally leads to the creation of an AI that looks, speaks, and even acts just like Natalie. From then on, the AI version of Natalie plays a significant role in the series, effectively serving as the man (or woman… or AI) in the chair for Riri. The introduction of an AI that is essentially a perfect replica of a lost loved one opens the door to some intriguing ethical and mental health-related questions, although the writing team doesn’s quite give this plot thread the narrative depth it deserves.
More broadly, Ironheart plays out like a heist series, not dissimilar from Ant-Man. Riri joins a crew of misfit criminals and participates in a series of exciting heists orchestrated by Anthony Ramos’ The Hood. The heists are compellingly engineered and make for engaging viewing, especially as The Hood’s motivation for these seemingly disparate heists remains under wraps and gives the series a sense of intrigue. Eventually though, this intrigue dissipates into underwhelm when The Hood’s motivations become clear and the mystery of the heists falls to pieces.
Resolution of this particular mystery aside, The Hood excels as a menacing and quietly charismatic antagonist. Ramos has had roles in a number of big-budget fare recently, from Transformers: Rise of the Beasts to Twisters, but has never occupied a villainous role quite like The Hood. Like some of the best MCU villains, The Hood exists in a morally gray area, with him being beloved by his crew, charming to the audience, and his heists targeting oppressive, wealthy structures in Chicago. But he’s also disturbing and ominous. The magical hood he always wears is shrouded in mystery, as are the violent red markings that appear on his back and begin to spread across his body. Whenever Ramos is on-screen, attention is immediately drawn to him, such is the magnitude of his screen presence.
Similarly compelling, albeit in a decidedly different way, is Alden Ehrenreich. The former Han Solo actor plays Joe McGillicuddy, an awkward and anxious secret tech wizard, who Riri coerces into working with him to build her suit. Joe’s arc is easily the most interesting and unexpected of any character in the series and works as well as it does due to the versatility in Ehrenreich’s performance as his character evolves. At first what seems like a fairly lightweight role grows into something far more substantial by the series’ end and, much like Solo: A Star Wars Story, showcases the actor’s ability to deliver compelling performances in more four-quadrant fare.
Dominique Thorne also does well in taking Riri Williams as far as the character can go given the limits of the writing. Thorne especially excels with her portrayal of grief, not always going for a showy or overt expression of the pain of loss, but, rather, conveying the subtle torment that comes from losing someone we love. It is a shame then that an actor of the quality of Thorne, who was a front-runner for the role of Shuri in Black Panther before Letitia Wright secured the role, is hindered by the lack of depth her character is afforded. As the episodes unfold, an uncomfortable realization sits in: there isn’t really an inherent conflict in the series. Instead, much (if not all) of the conflict that Riri deals with spawn from her repeated poor decisions, which often render Riri a more frustrating character than one who elicits empathy.
Despite hurdles along the way, Ironheart improves as it moves along. Past the halfway mark, the show finally begins to embrace the intersection of tech and magic that was hovering everything beforehand. In doing so, Ironheart begins to blend themes and concepts from Doctor Strange and Iron Man into a single, cohesive story and nicely connects to these realms of the MCU in different ways.
Eventually, Ironheart culminates in a surprisingly strong finale. The sixth episode proves to be far more spellbinding than any of the previous five, in large part due to the introduction of an ominous and fascinating element from Marvel comics that has massive implications for the MCU. This element is executed to perfection, both from a performance standpoint and a conceptual/narrative standpoint, and leads to a conclusion of the series that has us desperate to see more, something we did not expect to say after watching the fourth episode or so. The conclusion gives Riri a far more absorbing conflict than any she faces in the preceding season and makes the Ironheart finale among the very best finales of Marvel television to date.
VERDICT: 6/10
As Marvel Studios transitions into a self-proclaimed era of quality over quantity, the new series Ironheart trickles in as a reflection of the mixed recent history for the MCU, rather than the promising future the franchise has ahead. Dominique Thorne’s lead character Riri Williams, returning after 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, makes for a thinly developed lead with vague motivations and proclivity for poor decisions that render her more frustrating than likable. Character development that overly relies on telling the audience about Riri (you will lose count of the number of times she is referred to as “a genius”), rather than showing us about her evolution does a disservice to Thorne’s extraordinary acting abilities. More success is found with the series’ villain The Hood, portrayed with menace and quiet charisma by Anthony Ramos, despite an anti-climactic reveal of his motivations. Meanwhile, Alden Ehrenreich plays the character with the most compelling and unexpected arc of the series in a role that demonstrates his incredible versatility as an actor. A poor start marred by lost potential to explore an interesting moral question about AI and grief is offset by exciting heist sequences, before eventually giving way to a more gripping final few episodes that embraces the juxtaposition of tech and magic. All of this leads to a surprisingly strong final episode that ranks among the very best of Marvel Television finales and perfectly introduces an ominous and fascinating element from Marvel comics into the MCU. Although there were times when interest certainly declined, the resounding success of the finale fostered shocking reinvestment in the journey of Riri Williams and has us eager to see how her journey will unfold in future stories.