When the character Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne) made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut back in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the idea was that we’d be seeing the character again the following year in her own six-episode Disney+ show Ironheart… but 2023 came and went without Ironheart, and the show still doesn’t have an official premiere date. It is expected to come along sometime in 2025, and a trailer was recently shown at the D23 event. It will be a while before we get to see the show’s characters in action, but during a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, cast member Anthony Ramos (In the Heights, Twisters) took a moment to talk about the character he plays in the series: Parker Robbins, a.k.a. The Hood.
Ramos said, “I saw a trailer at D23. We walked onstage, and they played this new trailer of Ironheart, and it was my first time seeing it. And I’m not gonna lie, just as a fan, I was like, ‘Yo, this is crazy. If this show is half as good as this trailer, we in the mix.’ Dominique Thorne is incredible. She plays this genius, and she creates this new suit out of basically just spare parts. In her genius way, she creates this state-of-the-art, beautiful, high-tech suit. She becomes Ironheart. I get to play this villain, The Hood, and Parker Robbins in the comics, he gets this hood, and it’s too powerful for him. It’s overwhelming, and it starts to damage his body. You can see it on the outside, and you can see how it’s even affecting him on the inside and his personality and how it’s actually, literally, physically and mentally and emotionally breaking him, but it’s giving him so much power that he’s addicted. He’s like, ‘I can’t let it go.’ It becomes this weapon to seek vengeance, and for him, he’s starting off small, and he’s stealing in the comics, and then gradually it grows. It grows and grows and grows, and just like his power, I think, it becomes a little overwhelming for him. But I’m excited. I’m excited for y’all to see what we did with this character and just the art department, and our visual effects team and special effects makeup, too. Jonah [Levy] and his whole team, they were amazing with the tattoos and the scars. They really did a crazy job.“
As mentioned, Dominique Thorne stars in Ironheart as Riri Williams, “a genius inventor who creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.” Thorne and Ramos are joined in the cast by Manny Montana, Shakira Barrera, Alden Ehrenreich, Regan Aliyah, Shea Couleé, Zoe Terakes, Lyric Ross, Matthew Elam, Anji White, Jim Rash, Harper Anthony, Sonia Denis, Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola, Paul Calderón, and Cree Summer. We’ve also heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was in talks to play Mephisto.
Chinaka Hodge, whose previous credits include Snowpiercer and The Midnight Club, is the head writer on the series. Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes direct the episodes. Ryan Coogler, who was behind the Black Panther movies, is an executive producer on the show.
As for why Ironheart is taking so long to make its way out into the world, that is entirely due to the decision to take more time between the releases of Marvel movies and shows. Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation Brad Winderbaum told Agents of Fandom, “Frankly, in all honesty, there was a mandate to kind of create as much as we could for Disney+ as quickly as we could. And then, there was a shift, and all of a sudden, we have to start spreading our release dates out. So, that really accounts for a lot of the delays.“
Are you looking forward to seeing Anthony Ramos play The Hood on Ironheart? Let us know by leaving a comment below.