Plus: Director Sam Bailey unpacks Ironheart's complex new origin story, and why it's so important to the MCU.Plus: Director Sam Bailey unpacks Ironheart's complex new origin story, and why it's so important to the MCU.
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Director Sam Bailey On ‘Ironheart’s Tumultuous Journey So Far

When Tony Stark made the ultimate sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame, most Marvel fans were wringing their hands about the future of the franchise. The comics gave Iron Man a perfect successor in Riri Williams, who earns Tony’s attention after reverse-engineering his iron suit at MIT (all before turning 16, by the way). Though the characters never cross paths in the MCU, filling that void in Riri’s life was never a huge priority for Ironheart, especially for Sam Bailey, who produced and directed the show’s first three episodes.

“To me — I might get some hate about this — but it was never Tony’s story,” Bailey tells Inverse. “He never came into my mind, to be completely honest.”

Ironheart did need to rework Riri’s origins without Tony, but Bailey, showrunner Chinaka Hodge, and producer Ryan Coogler (who introduced Riri in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) found power in Riri’s differences. “We were always trying to figure out what her version of this story was,” Bailey says. “What is it like to be a young Black girl who’s also a genius, who’s also ambitious, who is also afraid of all of those things within her?”

The answer to that hypothetical plays out across six episodes of Ironheart, with the first three episodes focused on breaking Riri down to her basic foundations. It all culminates with an explosive, action-packed heist in Episode 3, which brings our heroine to rock bottom. Riri will eventually pick herself up with a mixture of grit, resolve, and a bit of magic — but before Ironheart unveils its final three episodes, Bailey sits down with Inverse to unpack Riri’s complex ambitions and why they’re so important to the MCU.

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