Ironheart: Marvel Casts Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams In Disney+ Series

Dominique Thorne is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Ironheart in a new series headed to Disney+. Marvel Studios made the announcement on Thursday during The Walt Disney Company Investor Day presentation. The If Beale Street Could Talk actor will play Riri Williams, a genius young girl who becomes the successor to Iron Man following Tony Stark's death. Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato created Ironheart in 2015. More recently, Eve Ewing and Kevin Libranda have taken hold of the character, giving her a new set of armor all her own. Ironheart is one of 10 Marvel Studios series headed to Disney+ in the next few years.

In the Marvel Comics universe, Riri Williams is a teen engineering genius. Following her father's death, she lives with her mother and her aunt in Chicago. At 15-years-old, she gets into MIT. While attending, she builds her own suit of Iron Man-style armor. After using the armor to stop two escaped prison inmates, Tony Stark reaches out to her and gives her his blessing to become a new armored hero.

But then Tony dies. Without him to serve as her mentor, Riri has to rely on her family, Pepper Potts, and a holographic simulacrum of Tony's mind to help guide her. Eventually, she becomes her own hero, Ironheart, and becomes a member of the new Champions alongside other young Marvel heroes like Kamal Khan as Ms. Marvel and Miles Morales as Spider-Man.

This will be Ironheart's live-action debut. She has appeared in animation in Marvel Rising: Heart of Iron and the Spider-Man episode "Amazing Friends." She's also appeared in Marvel Entertainment video games includes Marvel Puzzle Quest, Marvel Future Fight, Marvel Avengers Academy, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, and Marvel Strike Force.

Ironheart is hardly the only big announcement from Marvel during the Investor Day presentation. They also announced that Don Cheadle will return as War Machine in an Armor Wars Disney+ series, a Secret Invasion series, a Fantastic Four movie from Spider-Man director Jon Watts, that Christian Bale is playing Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder, and more.

What do you think of Marvel Studios bringing Riri Williams to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Ironheart on Disney+? Let us know how you feel about this and all of the other big Marvel announcements from the event in the comments section.