Iron Heart
We have many questions about what’s going to happen to the MCU after Phase Three finishes, but one of the biggest is: what does the future hold for Iron Man? Robert Downey Jr. can’t keep playing the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist forever, but how on Midgard will Marvel be able to find someone to replace him? Maybe the best idea is to have the next ironclad hero be someone completely different from Tony Stark.
With that in mind, enter Riri Williams, AKA Iron Heart. Created by Brian Michael Bendis (the mind behind Miles Morales and Jessica Jones) in 2016, Riri was a student of Tony’s who took over from him when he was comatose for a time – an A.I. version of Stark even acted as her JARVIS. She was chosen due to her ability to create her own homemade version of the Iron Man armour.
Alternatively, rather than introducing Riri Williams, another contender to take over Iron Man’s mantle might already exist in the MCU: T’Challa’s scientific prodigy of a sister Shuri. She shares a few traits with Riri and Letitia Wright’s character already has a lot of fan support and a warm reaction from critics.