One unexpected highlight of the MCU was the decision for Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark to be the mentor for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man starting when he recruits the young hero for Captain America: Civil War. It’s a dynamic that we’d never seen on the big screen, but turned out to be a welcome (and especially emotional) addition to the franchise. Looking to the future of Marvel, could one of the hero’s other protegee from the comics make her way in the franchise too?
The art director of God of War Raf Grassetti imagined how the suit of Riri Williams aka Ironheart could look like if she was introduced in the MCU. Check it out below:
How badass! The suit design could easily find itself in a Marvel film or series. It’s a new spin on the Iron Man suit for a female character, as seen in the comics through the relatively new character, Ironheart. The hero is a 15-year-old genius MIT student who reverse engineers one of Tony Stark’s suits into her very own and takes over the hero’s mantle while he is in a coma.
Riri Williams first appeared in the comic books in 2016 and has since received her own series from Eve Ewing and Kevin Libranda. Earlier this month, it was rumored that there is a series for Disney+ in “active development” for Ironheart, but it has not been confirmed by Marvel Studios. In 2018, a script for a project on the Marvel character also emerged on The Black List by Jada Rodriguez.
Just last year, both Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland showed their interest in Riri Williams joining the MCU in particular. Marvel Chief Kevin Feige also commented that it's a “great character” before retreating to his usual hush-hush rhetoric. Ironheart has not been a particularly best-selling comic book series for Marvel, but a movie or television adaptation could undoubtedly boost its popularity.
In the comic books, Riri Williams loses her father shortly after she is born and her best friend and family are killed in a drive-by shooting while she is on a picnic with them in her home of Chicago. After crafting her own Iron Man suit, she uses an A.I. duplicate of Tony Stark to guide her (similar to Paul Bettany’s JARVIS). Once Tony recovers and learns of Riri’s heroics, he endorses her as a superhero.
In regards to the MCU, Ironheart would not have Tony Stark to give her the thumbs up considering his sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame. However, it could be a touching storyline to keep the character’s legacy alive. Downey could potentially continue in the universe as a voiceover A.I. and Riri could work with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man.
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