Ironheart, the latest Marvel Studios television series at Disney+, has cast Sonia Denis in an as-yet-unnamed role, according to a report from Variety. Denis recently garnered an Emmy nomination as part of the writing staff on A Black Lady Sketch Show from HBO, having previously worked on Guilty Party for Paramount+. Her acting credits include High Maintenance, Brown Girls, Birdgirl and BoJack Horseman.
Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes will share directing duties on the series, which is also being produced by Ryan Coogler's Proximity. Chinaka Hodge will be the head writer on the series. Coogler will share executive producing credits with Hodge, Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian as well as producers from Marvel Studios: Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Zoie Nagelhout, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.
The six-episode series revolves around the character of Riri Williams, played by Dominique Thorne. Riri is a 15-year-old genius engineering student, attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Williams builds a suit of armor based on that of Iron Man, as built by Tony Stark, and takes up the title of Ironheart. The character of Williams will be introduced to audiences first in this November's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, having debuted in the recently released trailer for the film. A first-look at Ironheart was also presented in September at the D23 Expo in California.
Denis also joins Manny Montana, Alden Ehrenreich, Anthony Ramos and Lyric Ross. Ramos will play the show's villain, known as The Hood, while Ross will be playing Williams' best friend. Further plot details are thin at the moment, although the D23 footage did show Ramos' character telling Williams that she may be forced to do bad things for a good cause, before finding a red hood and displaying some magical abilities.
The most recent Wakanda Forever trailer demonstrated Williams' inventing abilities, assembling her suit of iron in addition to taking flight in it, screaming enthusiastically. Previous trailers had shown the character hammering the suit in a very deliberate throwback to Robert Downey Jr.'s iconic scene from the original Iron Man film, which launched the MCU back in 2008. The series is positioning the character to be a spiritual successor to Iron Man.
Ironheart is currently scheduled to premiere on Disney+ in the fall of 2023, as part of Phase Five of the MCU.