The upcoming MCU series Ironheart revolves around Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, a genius inventor and MIT student who first appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). She made an armor suit that can be compared to those developed by Tony Stark / Iron Man and became the titular superhero. In a recent interview, Brad Winderbaum, Marvel Studios’ head of TV, streaming, and animation, explained the behind-the-scenes connection between Riri’s suit in Ironheart and Tony’s armor from the first Iron Man movie.
Brad Winderbaum details how Riri Williams’s Ironheart suit is similar to Iron Man
Winderbaum recently revealed that Riri’s suit in Ironheart is considerably practical.
During his appearance on the Phase Hero: A Film & TV Podcast, the veteran producer shared that the show’s team used techniques that go back to 2008’s Iron Man to depict the suit on the small screen.
“There’s a full practical suit,” Winderbaum said, before elaborating, “It doesn’t obviously do all the crazy things that the suit does but we used a lot of techniques that go all the way back to the first Iron Man film, where we actually had a practical suit on set.”
The Marvel Studios executive continued, “First of all, just even as a visual reference for the CG artists having the actual suit there, even if it had to do like CG things and open and close and stuff… it had all the perfect lighting reference, so the emulation is just spot on. It’s awesome. I mean I’m sure it’s going to be in the Marvel lobby in a few months.”
Brad Winderbaum also spoke about the personal struggles that Riri would face in Ironheart. “It’s a bit of a quarter-life crisis for her [Riri],” he said. “She fought in Wakanda, she fought Namor, she had this great adventure. But the day-to-day struggle is still real… She’s Riri Williams. She’s gonna do what she needs to do to get by for her and her family and everyone else. And it does lead her down some roads.”
Further, Winderbaum also mentioned that Riri has a “Tony Stark-size ego” as well, teasing that it will get her into trouble in the show.
Ironheart premieres on Disney+ on June 24, 2025.
