Ironheart Rumored to Include New Villain With Surprising Connection to Iron Man in the MCU

Production on Ironheart is still some time away, but the writer's room appears to be at work as the show has popped up in the news cycle. A new report suggests a child of Obadiah Stane—the villain played by Jeff Bridges all the way back in 2008's Iron Man—will serve as the antagonist of the series.

According to The Illuminerdi, an apparent casting grid has started to circulate that includes a character in their 40s who is "brilliant" and "comedic," but who also "may not be what it seems" and "has secrets to hide."

In the Marvel source material, Obadiah's most infamous child is Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane. The younger Stane first appeared in The Order as an opponent of Tony Stark. The character was created by Barry Kitson and Matt Fraction.

"Zeke is a post-national business man and kind of an open source ideological terrorist, he has absolutely no loyalty to any sort of law, creed, or credo. He doesn't want to beat Tony Stark, he wants to make him obsolete," Fraction once told CBR.

He added, "Windows wants to be on every computer desktop in the world, but Linux and Stane want to destroy the desktop. He's the open source to Stark's closed source oppressiveness. He has no headquarters, no base, and no bank account. He's a true ghost in the machine; completely off the grid, flexible, and mobile. That absolutely flies in the face of Tony's received business wisdom and in the way business is done. There are banks and lawyers and you have facilities and testing. Stane is a much more different animal. He's a much smarter, more mobile, and much quicker to respond and evolved futurist."

The series has yet to set a filming start date, but has hired Chinaka Hodge (Snowpiercer) as the writer to lead its room.

Ironheart has yet to set a release date.

What other characters would you like to see appear in the upcoming DisneY+ show? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!