Robert Downey Jr. May Return to MCU in Ironheart Series on Disney+

By SOTH Team

3 minute 09/08/2019

Robert Downey Jr. at the Avengers: Infinity War premiere, Photo: ©PATRICKMCMULLAN.COM

East End Marvel fans rejoice! You may not have heard the last of East Hamptonite Robert Downey Jr. as genius inventor Tony Stark (aka Iron Man). With Tom Holland‘s Spider-Man likely out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) for good, someone else will need to act as Iron Man’s successor, and her name is Ironheart.

A source has reportedly leaked the news that the bigwigs at Disney+, the House of Mouse’s wildly anticipated streaming service, are planning a new MCU series based on the 2015 Ironheart comics, which follow 15-year-old engineering prodigy Riri Williams in her pursuit to become an armored superheroine akin to Iron Man and Rescue (portrayed by Amagansett’s Gwyneth Paltrow in Avengers: Endgame). Downey already gave his seal of approval for Ironheart to join the MCU during an acceptance speech at the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Renaissance gala earlier this year.

It’s rumored that Downey will return as Riri’s AI, providing voiceover guidance and training tips. Though, it’s currently unknown if Downey will make any sort of onscreen appearance in a flashback or hologram capacity.

While it’s true that an Ironheart series has yet to be confirmed, She-Hulk was in a similar position before being officially announced last month, so it’s certainly possible, especially given Downey’s endorsement. In the meantime, all we can do is hope—and turn our attention to the Disney+ series that are confirmed, such as WandaVision starring East Ender Elizabeth Olsen.

To the surprise of many, it’s been confirmed that WandaVision will draw influence from classic American sitcoms and then evolve into a more traditional MCU-style production. The show will focus heavily on the love story between Olsen’s character Wanda Maximoff (aka Scarlet Witch) and Paul Bettany‘s Vision, who was killed by Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War. The show will crossover heavily into the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness film, and its main cast features characters from a diverse range of Marvel films—Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) from Ant-Man and the Wasp, Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) from the first two Thor movies and Monica Rambeau (portrayed by Akira Akbar in Captain Marvel, to be played by Teyonah Parris in WandaVision).

With so many big-budget projects in the works, it’s hard to believe Disney+ will launch this November at the surprisingly low price of $7.99 a month. However, that price tag will likely be a bit heftier come this time next year.