Last year, we reported that there were rumblings that Disney and Marvel Studios were looking to replace Tony Stark/Iron Man with young newcomer Riri Williams/Ironheart.
For those unfamiliar with the character, she’s a relatively new hero in the Marvel Universe, a genius MIT student who reverse engineers Stark’s armor and begins to fight crime in it. Seeing her skills, intelligence and even some of himself in her, Tony agrees to assist her in her superhero career and creates an AI version of himself to help Riri that fulfills the same function as JARVIS.
Now, with Iron Man having met his maker in Avengers: Endgame – RIP Tony, we love you 3000! – the MCU is going to need someone new to fill the role of the world’s next big hero and from what we’ve heard from our sources, the plan is still to have Ironheart step up and be that person.
From what we’ve been told, we’ll first see several characters try to take over for Tony, with War Machine and Spider-Man being but two heroes who attempt to be the next Iron Man. Eventually, though, they’ll realize that role just isn’t for them and it’ll be Ironheart who goes on to fill it. Apparently, she’ll even have Tony’s suit to help her and will be introduced in a Phase 4/5 film before eventually fighting alongside the New Avengers – the new iteration of the team which will be led by Captain Marvel.
Though this remains unconfirmed for now, it does make sense that Ironheart will eventually be the MCU’s new Iron Man. As we mentioned above, there’ve already been numerous reports saying much the same thing and with Kevin Feige constantly promising us that more prominent female heroes are coming to the franchise, with the goal being to eventually have more female heroes than male ones, it’s easy to see why the studio has high hopes for Riri Williams.
For now, we’ll just have to wait for some concrete Phase 4 announcements from Marvel before we get too excited, but until they decide to reveal more, tell us, who would you like to see play Ironheart in the MCU? Take to the comments down below and share your thoughts.