Ironheart is a new Disney+ series from Marvel Studios, and Dominique Thorne (This is Us) has been cast as in the title role. The character Ironheart, AKA Riri Williams, is a 15-year-old MIT engineering student and inventor who is deeply inspired by Iron Man and creates her own flying armor.

The show has decided on its filmmaking talent, hiring Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes as directors. Bailey will direct episodes one through three, while Barnes will helm episodes four to six. Bailey is the co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls. Barnes counts episodes of Mythic Quest, One Day at a Time, Blindspotting and the upcoming season of Atlanta among her many credits. Chinaka Hodge, who served as a staff writer on TNT’s Snowpiercer series, is head writer.

Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Space Jam) and his production company, Proximity Media, have joined the creative team of Ironheart.

In the Heights star Anthony Ramos and child star Harper Anthony (Vulture City) are cast in mysterious roles, not yet revealed.

Proximity was founded in 2018 by Coogler, producer Sev Ohanian (Run), composer Ludwig Göransson, Archie Davis and Peter Nicks and works across mediums, from film and television to soundtracks and podcasts. In the movie sphere, it produced Judas and the Black Messiah and Space Jam: A New Legacy. The company has an exclusive overall television deal with Disney under which it’s creating a Black Panther spinoff series set in Wakanda, Wakanda Forever.

The Riri Williams character debuted in 2016’s Invincible Iron Man No. 7 and was created by star-writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato. At certain points in the comics, she even takes over for Tony Stark as Iron Man.

This isn’t Ironheart’s first appearance in media. She’s made appearances in various Marvel video games, such as Marvel Avengers Academy and Marvel Strike Force. Riri, played by a real student, has even been featured in a short admissions video where she can be seen attending real-life MIT University.

Ironheart is rumored to make her debut in the Wakanda series this November. Her own series’ filming begins June 2022.

“And that is a picture wrap on Riri Williams. God is so good. See y’all in November,” Thorne wrote in an Instagram Story this March. “We’re shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever right now and the character of Riri Williams, you will meet in Black Panther 2 first,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com last summer. “She started shooting, I think, this week, before her Ironheart series.”

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