Iron Man is the biggest character the MCU has and it is all because of one man in the lead, Robert Downey Jr. The Marvel Cinematic Universe might not have grown this big if it wasn’t for him, and it would have been the same in his case, i.e. he would not have been a big gun in Hollywood if it wasn’t for the success of MCU. So, both of them go hand in hand. But, it will all come to an end after Avengers 4 as Downey’s contract will be done by then. According to the new rumors, even if Robert Downey Jr. is done with the character, Marvel will still continue the Iron Man franchise with Ironheart.
Iron Man has been the biggest money maker for Marvel, and even if most of the credit for that goes to the way people responded to Robert Downey Jr., it is still the character which is popular among the people. So, with Downey gone possibly having been retired and not killed off, MCU will look forward to continuing the character of Iron Man by passing on the mantle to someone else. According to many reports, Marvel will do that with Ironheart.
Phase 4 is going to see the new characters with the likes of Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man and others leading the shared Universe forward but we will also see some new faces making their way into the mix. One of those new faces may be of Ironheart.
A while ago, the Hashtag Show added the script of Ironheart by Jada Rodriguez on The Black List (a list of Hollywood’s most popular unmade screenplays) and which gave us a major hint that the writer was actually commissioned by Marvel to come up with a draft which will decide whether the project will move further or not.
The Black List tweeted really praising the script. In the recent Marvel comics run, Riri Williams aka Ironheart is the successor to Tony Stark and she is the creation of Brian Michael Bendis who wrote her as a young teenage prodigy who manages to reverse-engineer the Iron Man armor tech all by herself while studying at MIT. She’s eventually discovered by Pepper Potts and Tony Stark while doing some moonlighting in the armor. She gets the major support of the couple and gets the push to become a Superhero.
In the comics, Tony gives her an A.I. version of his consciousness which serves as her mentor and allows her to build her own armor which is then called “Ironheart.” Now this could work with the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe retires Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark at the end of Avengers 4 as the story of Riri Williams could continue the Iron Man franchise from where Downey would leave it and RDJ could have a cameo at max if Marvel does go forward with this, so let’s be optimistic.
Even though it has not been confirmed by MCU in any war, the little spark of Ironheart may have caught some fire with the announcement made by Marvel Comics today as they did mention the fact that they’re “bringing Ironheart into the spotlight” in a new comic written by artist, poet and playwright Eve Ewing. Ewing herself is very excited about it and here’s what she had to say when asked about Iron Heart as a character:
“Ironheart symbolizes what happens when you combine incredible strength and might with a sense of love, care, and a true desire for justice. Not just punishment or showing off or short-term solutions, but real justice. Not to be corny or overly literal, but that’s what it means to combine the power represented by “iron” with the moral compass represented by “heart.” Riri’s identity and the place where she comes from means she sometimes has a different perspective than some of her peers on how to deal with people who are doing wrong. There’s a reason she doesn’t just go around blasting everybody to high heaven because, to be real, she definitely could do that if she wanted. But she’s a very tender person at her core, and she doesn’t just want to be a senseless weapon.”
Now, this may be just related to the comics, but it could also be a move to make the character more familiar amongst the audiences as Disney and Marvel may be planning to launch the character on the big screen. Let’s see what happens.
