- calendar_today September 1, 2025
First Ironheart Trailer Hints at High-Stakes Chicago Showdown
Ryan Coogler is riding high in 2024. Just one film, the successful Sinners, deep into his ongoing working relationship with Marvel, the director already has another major project on the horizon: a new Disney+ limited series, Ironheart. The studio has just dropped a sleek new trailer ahead of the show’s eagerly awaited June 2025 release date.
Ironheart, a six-part series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stars Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams a.k.a. Ironheart, a teenage technological genius who is a protégé of Tony Stark’s in the comics. The series will be the last television installment in the MCU’s Phase Five.
The series was first announced back in December 2020, with an original projected release date of 2023. Marvel, however, would later announce a major reconfiguration of its long-term plans, including a reduction in the number of releases per year due, at least in part, to concern about market saturation. The Ironheart premiere was delayed to this summer.
The brief footage shown off at 2024’s D23 convention was described as “a crime show with an Iron Man twist at the center.” With these breadcrumbs, at least, Marvel has teased a series that’s darker and more grounded than many of the MCU’s other recent shows.
The character, a Black teenage genius with a major interest in engineering and metallurgy, made her first live-action MCU appearance in the 2022 movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the film, she inadvertently becomes embroiled in a struggle between Namor and the blue-skinned denizens of Talokan, having designed a vibranium detector while studying at MIT. Throughout the film, Riri bonds with Shuri over their mutual love of science, and manages to cobble together an armored suit of her own—modeled on Iron Man’s, but obviously with far less work and resources behind it—to help Wakanda in its hour of need. Before returning to her studies at MIT, the two must part ways as Riri is unable to take the suit with her back to Chicago.
Juggling Gadgets and Mystic Threats
Ironheart begins not long after the events of Wakanda Forever. “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).”
The cast is a group of promising performers. Lyric Ross is set to portray Natalie Washington, Riri’s best friend; Alden Ehrenreich will play Joe McGillicuddy; Manny Montana will be Cousin John; Matthew Elam will be Xavier Washington; and Anji White will play Riri’s mother, Ronnie. Shea Coulée is set to portray Slug. Jim Rash is also set to reprise his role as the dean of MIT, first seen in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Sacha Baron Cohen is on board to take an unspecified role as well, but Marvel has so far not provided any hints as to what character he might be playing.
The new trailer opens by dropping Riri into a closed-down pizza joint where, through no fault of her own, she winds up trapped inside an elevator with a fast-depleting supply of poisonous air. The situation, we learn, is a “test”—or an “interview,” as her would-be host insists—orchestrated by The Hood. He informs Riri over the intercom that she has two minutes to break into the floor-mounted box containing a gas mask, or she will die of asphyxiation. Riri is not having any of it and instead finds an inventive way to escape her deadly dilemma.
Impressed by her lateral thinking, The Hood offers Riri the opportunity to join him in some unspecified illegal activity in return for the use of his resources to build a truly “iconic” suit of her own. Riri, anxious to make a name for herself and prove herself, after a brief moment’s consideration, agrees to join The Hood. In response, her friends, and especially Natalie, warn her against taking a leap that could cause her real harm in her quest for attention. The Hood’s goals are likely not so innocent, especially when he tells Riri that “Anyone who has ever accomplished anything iconic in life has had to do some questionable things to get it done.”
One assumes that we will be treated to stories of exactly how far down the rabbit hole Riri is willing to go in the series, and what personal or social costs she’s willing to sacrifice in the name of her ambitions. We can only hope that her character doesn’t end up being forced into the sorts of extreme ethical compromises that certain recent MCU characters have found themselves in.
Marvel has announced that the first three episodes of Ironheart will launch on Disney+ on June 24, 2025, with the remaining three episodes being released each subsequent Wednesday. As for a second season, that remains to be seen, although there’s always a chance if the first run proves to be a success. In the meantime, those who are looking forward to the series can find a trailer and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Ironheart could be the next big thing from the MCU and Marvel. Building on Ryan Coogler’s established directorial prowess and mixing in Thorne’s very promising performance, the series looks to be a melding of the high-tech tradition of Iron Man with the street-level crime drama and could point the way forward for new kinds of stories in the MCU.
