Rating: TV-14 | Episodes: 6 | Runtime: 50 minutes
Release Date: June 24th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Marvel Studios / Disney+
Creator(s): Chinaka Hodge / Brian Michael Bendis & Mike Deodato Jr. (character)

Is good really a label you need?

Magic has entered the MCU. Yes, it’s been here for a while considering Doctor Strange and his Mystic Arts buddies in Kamar-Taj. But not really. Not as anything more than a means to visually play with physics. No, the magic at the center of “Ironheart” is conversely very, very dark. Evil. Faustian. It’s about giving someone the ability to wreak havoc and accrue power … for a price. For something the recipient “won’t even miss.”

In this case, that someone is Parker Robbins aka Hood (Anthony Ramos): a criminal mastermind with a loyal lieutenant (Manny Montana’s Cousin John), hacker (Jaren Merrell’s Slug), demolitions expert (Sonia Denis’ Clown), and muscle duo (Zoe Terakes’ Jeri and Shakira Barrera’s Roz). His plan is to extort ownership in every high-tech Chicago upstart for reasons we don’t yet know beyond the millions worth of shares that come with the package. And he accomplishes it with the help of a leather hood granting him invisibility.

All he needs is a tech genius he can trust to put his team over the top and one just happens to have returned home in disgrace. Enter Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) fresh off an “internship” in Wakanda and an unceremonious expulsion from MIT. Saddled with a one-track mind to finish her Iron Man-inspired suit as a way to ignore the grief of watching her best friend (Lyric Ross’ Natalie) and stepfather (LaRoyce Hawkins’ Gary) die, she joins Parker under the delusion that relinquishing control over her morality is worth a no-strings-attached injection of much-needed financing.

That’s deal number one: Riri becoming a criminal to assist her goal of becoming a hero (if not for the world, at least for her mom, played by Anji White, and romantic interest Xavier, played by Matthew Elam). Deal number two is believing the health benefits of accidentally bringing Natalie back to life as her suit’s AI outweigh the potential for even worse anguish upon realizing she can only kick the can on accepting her death so far. And deal three arrives via Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich). It starts with blackmail, but he eventually agrees to risk his own freedom by blindly trusting Riri at her word.

Deal number four is the one that concerns magic because Parker’s prowess with the hood comes at a cost. What that is … we also don’t yet fully know. We merely see it manifesting as black scars branching out over his body like infected veins. Every time he uses the hood, the scars and pain grow. Perhaps it’s even affecting his demeanor as the partnership he began with John gradually turns into a dictatorship and the family he’s cultivated with his crew becomes a lot more transactional once their lucky streak starts hitting some snags. Who or what is behind it? Well, consider Riri’s attempt to find out deal number five because the price paid by everyone else for her trouble couldn’t be higher.

It’s a lot to juggle in under six hours. Credit Chinaka Hodge for mostly making it work, but it’s hardly a flawless job. There are simply too many characters involved to not feel rushed. And I haven’t even mentioned sorcerer-in-training Zelma (Regan Aliyah), Parker’s mysterious benefactor (Sacha Baron Cohen), or someone I did mention being revealed as someone else. It’s moving so fast plot-wise that I didn’t even clock Xavier was Natalie’s brother until halfway through the series. I initially thought Natalie was Riri’s sister before that got cleared up. Then I thought Xavier was Natalie’s boyfriend before that got corrected. This thing needed ten episodes.

I get it, though. None of that stuff matters where it concerns Riri needing to prepare herself to take Parker down. The others are simply friends and foes along the journey. But they’re also some of the most intriguing characters we’ve received in the MCU since Eternals and they deserve some time of their own to breathe. It’s why I wish Marvel Television would slow things down. Give us a series with this many people, but allow them equal life with dedicated episodes a la “The Bear” or “Lost”. Not every new MCU chapter must strictly adhere to pushing us forward. It’s why I enjoyed “Agatha All Along” so much. They let that one exist. “Ironheart” is more: “Let’s refresh as much dormant IP as possible.”

That’s fine for entertainment purposes so I did enjoy the ride. There’s some real emotionality as Riri copes with loss and attempts to dig herself out. The heists in the first half are elaborate and fun. And the White Castle fight in “Karma’s a Glitch” was fantastic. But I totally disengaged the moment the mid-credit stinger ended after the finale. I found myself less interested in digging into what I just saw then hypothesizing where it connects later to Secret Wars. So, like most of the post-Endgame fare, it’s ultimately a commercial for bigger possibilities. How can it not when the final episode is the shortest (by ten minutes) while also introducing more questions than answers?

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(L-R): Ironheart/Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) and Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich) in Marvel Television’s IRONHEART, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Jalen Marlowe. © 2025 MARVEL. All Rights Reserved.