IRONHEART Actress Dominique Thorne Says in Light of Robert Downey Jr.'s Approval of Her Character, Fans Should "Get on the Bandwagon"
Ironheart actress Dominique Thorne made her Marvel debut as Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), and the character filled a bit of a void left by Tony Stark when he was ultimately sacrificed in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
The parallels are obvious, with the pair each being tech geniuses who have the capability to create highly advanced robotics to help serve the good guys in the fight against evil.
While Thorne’s return to the MCU has been drawn out, we will see her return to play the lead in the Ironheart series, out later this month, and she teased a possible appearance in the upcoming Avengers films.
In a recent interview with The Direct, Thorne was asked if we could expect to see her in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. She responded, coyly, "Oh, you know, what can I say? The odds might be in our favor. Who knows? We'll see. We'll see."
For fans who have not yet embraced her character, Thorne threw around the fact that Tony Stark actor Robert Downey Jr. himself has endorsed her, saying:
"I would say get on the bandwagon. It's here. We're here... I mean, Tony's on the bandwagon, so you know, what's the problem? RDJ is here. It's nice here. It's cute here. It's comfy here. It smells good here."
She also teased Riri’s abilities in the upcoming series, stating, "I think we've got little tastes and teases of that previously. Throughout, you know, the phases that have led us here. But this, absolutely, to me, feels like new territory in terms of how tech and magic can merge, how they can work together, how they might clash.
“It's fun, it's exciting, it's dangerous, it's risky. It's all the things that you might expect. So, yeah, just another reason to lean in and see where this takes us in the broader context of the MCU."
Ironheart will kick off with its first three episodes streaming on Disney+ on June 24, 2025, with three more episodes dropping weekly.