Ironheart Trailer Is Another Weightless Marvel Trailer
After priming the audience to pretty please, with sugar on top, like their new show, Marvel has released the first trailer for Ironheart, their upcoming Disney+ miniseries. (They’re not even pretending to think this one’s going to catch on.) Ironheart stars Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, the role she originated in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, as she returns to her hometown of Chicago and tries to perfect her mech suit with help from a mysterious figure called the Hood. Anthony Ramos, Alden Ehrenreich, Lyric Ross, Manny Montana, Sacha Baron Cohen, and a drag queen (I’m not kidding) also star. Ironheart will debut on Disney+ on June 24, 2025, with its first three episodes – half of its run. You can watch the Ironheart trailer below:
Why bury the lead? The Ironheart trailer does the show about as many favors as anyone thought it would and makes it looks about as good as all of the Disney+ disasters that came before it. But, as always, you can see the kernels of a story peppered through the trailer. Riri is, of course, astoundingly arrogant and seemingly doing her level best to be unlikable; when the Hood suggests that she wants to build “something important,” she corrects him by saying, “iconic.” She seems like the typical excruciating Marvel girl boss, making everything about her and demanding adulation as opposed to wanting to help anyone. But her interactions with the Hood and some of the comments her friends and family make suggest that maybe the show is aware that this is a character flaw in a way that, for example, She-Hulk and Captain Marvel didn’t. Is Riri going to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around her, that she should be more concerned with helping others than turning herself into an icon? My experience tells me she probably isn’t, but that’s the logical way for this story to go, and maybe Marvel will at least attempt to make her a compelling character rather than someone the show just tells us we have to love over and over.
And based on the Ironheart trailer, the show seems to love Riri almost as much as she loves herself. The opening scene has the Hood test her by locking her in an elevator with some poison gas device, giving her two minutes to disable it and save herself; instead, Riri hotwires the elevator door to open, which I imagine is supposed to tell us that Riri Williams doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules (despite seeming to seek out the Hood for some kind of “interview”). She even gets a ridiculous feat of strength where she uses all of her 80 pounds to lift the big, metal elevator door open and free herself. This is another problem Marvel has now: their female characters can’t just have one skill; they have to be good at everything. Riri could have demonstrated that her mind is her strongest weapon by hacking the Hood’s device and disabling it; it’s not the most original idea ever, but for this situation, it makes the most sense. But nope, Riri has to pull a Hulk and lift that whole door because she can do anything. And, of course, there’s the college professor who tells her she’s “not the first genius at MIT,” and by his tone, you know he’s going to be proven wrong and then humiliated somehow. (“I may not be the first, but I’m the best!”) And while the concept of the Hood as the tempter who seduces Riri into a life of crime for convenience is potentially interesting, the guy who plays the character, Anthony Ramos, doesn’t have the right feel for a part like that; there’s no menace to him, and his silly smile makes this look like a Power Rangers episode. We’ll see if Marvel actually tries with this one in a month or so, but I’m not getting my hopes up.
Let us know what you think of the Ironheart trailer in the comments!
***
Get a META PC today; use code “199” to save on all purchases!
If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
Get Your Geeks + Gamers merch here!
