Marvel's Ironheart Directors Revealed, Ryan Coogler's Production Company Involved

Marvel's Ironheart series has revealed its directors: Sam Baily (Dear White People) and Angela Barnes (Blindspotting) will take the helm on the Ironheart Disney+ series, with Black Panther director Ryan Coogler's production company Proximity handling production on Ironheart. Marvel's "Ironheart" character is Riri Williams, a young girl tech prodigy who ends up reverse-engineering her own Iron Man armor from Stark Tech. How the Marvel Cinematic Universe will adapt that story remains to be seen. 

The Ironheart series found its Riri Williams in actress Dominique Thorne; In The Heights star Anthony Ramos was also cast in the show (reportedly as a "key" new MCU villain). It was actually Ramos who previous confirmed that Ryan Coogler was involved with the series – an important name to note. It's been confirmed (by us) that the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sequel that Coogler is directing will also launch Riri Williams into the MCU; Coogler recently signed an overall deal with Disney to help shape a variety of new projects for the studio, following the massive success of Black Panther. 

"We're shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever right now and the character of Riri Williams, you will meet in Black Panther 2 first," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com. "She started shooting, I think, this week, before her Ironheart series."

Dominique Thorne confirmed that she finished filming Black Panther 2 just last month, posting And that is a picture wrap on Riri Williams. God is so good. See y'all in November." 

Ironheart will be, in many ways, the new rebirth of the Iron Man franchise within the MCU. Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark died during the climatic battle of Avengers: Endgame, leaving a void for a new tech genius to step up and fill his void. Fans are still hoping to see Downey's Iron Man make a (small) return in some form – perhaps as the A.I. voice guiding Riri – at least in her initial adventures. 

In addition to Ironheart, the Iron Man legacy will also be explored in the upcoming Armor Wars series, starring Don Cheadle's War Machine. Going by the show's title (a Marvel Comics storyline reference) it's speculated that Rhodey will be undertaking a mission to reclaim control of Stark Tech armor being (mis-)used across the globe. 

According to the report, Proximity co-founders Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian are serving as executive producers on Ironheart, alongside Hodge and Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum and Zoie Nagelhout. 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to open in theaters on November 11th. 

Source: Variety