If Riri Williams is the next Iron Man, she’s got a lot of growing to do yet.

Set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart pick up the story of Riri Williams (Dominque Thorne), a young genius who wants to build her own legacy. After getting expelled, Riri is forced to return home to Chicago. With no cash to continue building her unbelievable iron suits, Williams feels at a loss. However, her life changes when she meets Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos). Willing to step outside the law, Robbins (or ‘The Hood’) invites Riri to join his team. Even so, there’s something mysterious about him that Riri can’t quite understand and, the more she finds out, the more dangerous things become.

Riri Williams/Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) in Marvel Television’s IRONHEART, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2025 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.

Written by Chinaka Hodge, Ironheart is an energetic entry into the MCU that doesn’t quite fly to the heights of some of Marvel’s other television series but still has more than enough power to get off the ground and stay in the air. At first glance, Ironheart may seem like a bit of an odd entry into the mega-franchise. With characters such as a villain with a mystical cloak, the return of a forgotten Marvel villain family and an AI based on Williams’ dead best friend, one could be forgiven for feeling like these pieces are thrown together. (Though, it’s worth noting that all of these are elements from the Ironheart comic series.) Still, the series still works well, largely due to some strong finales and solid performances by its cast, especially Williams and Lyric Ross as Riri’s AI-pal, N.A.T.A.L.I.E.

However, what makes the series most intriguing is the way that it blends such different Marvel styles for the first time. Let’s turn back the clock for a brief moment to the year 2008. With the release of Iron Man, Marvel Studios (not yet a Disney product, btw) laid out a plan to create the first ‘Cinematic Universe’, a series of films that were loosely connected and culminating with The Avengers. But, coming off the heels of Christopher Nolan’s dark and gritty Batman Begins, having a more ‘grounded’ take on whimsical fare was all the rage. (Even Casino Royale steered clear of James Bond silliness.)

Parker Robbins/The Hood (Anthony Ramos) in Marvel Television’s IRONHEART, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2025 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.

So, with the early MCU films, one can tell that they’re pleading with the audience that superpowers were fairly logical. Captain America, Hulk and Tony Stark were all ‘science-based’, even if they had amazing abilities. (In an effort to smooth the transition, even Thor points out in his first film that ‘what [Asgardians] call science, you call magic’.) At the time, the merger between science and magic was simply unthinkable.

Fast-forward to 2025 and the MCU is in a very different place. After Doctor Strange introduced magic in to the world, the franchise hasn’t looked back. Witches, mystical relics and dark magic are simply part of the universe that we’ve come to know and love.

Which is what makes Ironheart so fascinating.

Riri Williams/Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) in Marvel Television’s IRONHEART, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2025 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.

Without giving too many spoilers, Ironheart is the first true merger of the styles that were once thought unthinkable to co-exist. There’s little doubt that some fans will bristle at seeing these things brought together in the series but, genuinely, it’s also part of its charm. While it can be a bit of a bumpy transition, the series does manage to weave the two together effectively for the most part. (In fact, in doing so, there’s an acknowledgement that science and spiritual need not exist solely in opposition.)

But, despite it’s more spiritual bend, it’s worth noting that the soul of the series remains Riri’s journey. Although we only met her character briefly in Wakanda Forever, Ironheart allows us to delve into what drives her. And Thorne does a wonderful job playing up the innocents (and fallibility) of youth. Although the comparisons to Tony Stark are appropriate, she is no Tony Stark. Having been raised in poverty, her brilliance didn’t have the same privileges the young billionaire heir, creating a struggle for everything that she’s accomplished. What’s more, still grieving the loss of her closest friend, Riri is struggling to hold herself together, fighting a recklessness that feels unstable.

Ironheart/Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) in Marvel Television’s IRONHEART. Photo by Jalen Marlowe. © 2024 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.

As such, Williams is a character who’s willing to bend the rules in order to do the right thing. (Actually, maybe that is like Stark.) And this leads to her making some very questionable decisions. And it’s those questionable decisions that create some genuinely dramatic questions. In all honesty, the final moments of the series’ third and final episode are absolutely compelling, creating some of the franchise’s best cliffhangers in years. We know that Riri wants to do the right thing but that doesn’t mean that she can’t make mistakes.

Maybe the hero’s journey isn’t a straight line, after all.

Admittedly though, there series can also be messy. It’s a difficult task to blend science and magic and the series’ limited runtime means that it has to rush the process. As a result, with only six episodes, sometimesIronheart does feel like it’s throwing new information at the audience too quickly, making for uneven pacing. However, thanks to some wonderful work by its cast, the series still manages to fly. Just like Williams herself, the show may not be perfect but it sure is fun to watch.

The first three episodes of Ironheart are available on Disney+ now with the second batch of episodes releasing on Tuesday, July 1st, 2025.