Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) was introduced in "Wakanda forever" but now gets her own story in Marvel's constantly expanding universe.
Williams is a brilliant inventor who helps her student colleagues with their schoolwork for payment but gets caught for plagiarism and is kicked out of the elite university MIT. Williams travels to her hometown Chicago where she teams up with a gang of Robin Hood thieves. The plan is to finance the continued construction of her flying armor in the same style as Tony Stark's "Iron man".
New characters
"Ironheart" is based on the series with the same title that was released in the late 10s.
We took some of the series' themes and archetypes and applied them to new characters. Part of the fun in the writer's room was finding characters that hadn't been used yet, says Chinaka Hodge, who is the creator of the TV series.
Hodge tells that she is a good friend of Eve Ewing who wrote the series, and Hodge felt that it was important "not to destroy Ewing's baby".
"Ironheart" is perhaps the most diverse series in Marvel's universe, as the cast consists of non-white, trans and drag queen actors. For example, Shea Couleé, who won the fifth season of "RuPaul's drag race all stars" and plays the stubborn hacker Slug.
We auditioned widely for all roles and chose the best actor for the job. Then we adjusted the role to the actor, rather than the other way around. Slug was fully developed before Shea Couleé came in and brought so much, says Chinaka Hodge.
Fighting spirit and pride
Ryan Coogler, known director of the current vampire film "Sinners" as well as "Wakanda forever" and "Black Panther" acts as executive producer for "Ironheart". According to him, the series reflects Chicago's special diversity.
Chicago is called "the jewel of the Midwest" and I love that it's so varied. I think the cast captures that the whole world is there. You can run into anyone in Chicago and everyone has a sense of fighting spirit and pride, he says.
Kristoffer Viita/TT
Facts: "Ironheart"
TT
Genre: Action/superhero Creator and screenwriter: Chinaka Hodge In the roles: Dominique Thorne, Anthony Ramos, Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich and others. Premiere: June 24 on Disney+
