Ironheart Star Dominique Thorne Teases Marvel's “Insane” New Phase

Working in the MCU can be a waiting game for any actor, and Ironheart star Dominique Thorne understands that experience better than most. She’s been waiting in the wings — and holding in countless secrets about her character — for years. The actor went into prep for Ironheart immediately after shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2021, but her solo series took a lot longer to come to fruition.

“It feels like a sigh of relief,” Thorne tells Inverse from her home in Atlanta, now that Ironheart is finally out in the world. “[You] almost don’t realize how much or how closely you’re carrying that until you don’t have to carry it anymore.”

Though Thorne never doubted that Ironheart would get its time in the sun, the wait still hasn’t been easy. “To have gone straight through that entire journey from Wakanda Forever, back to Chicago for Ironheart, and then to just put it on pause for three years, is insane,” she admits.

Now, Thorne’s finally free to exhale — and more importantly, to “move forward.”

Ironheart spins off from Wakanda Forever with irrepressible energy and something to prove, not unlike its headstrong protagonist. Thorne portrays Riri Williams as a teen genius on a time crunch: she’s racing against the clock, a Chicago-based villain called the Hood (Anthony Ramos), and her own suppressed grief to make an impact on the world. Though she never met Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), the inventor and Avenger who saved the world a hundred times, his legacy looms large over Riri. Her efforts to reverse-engineer his trademark Iron Man armor see Riri turning to dangerous magic and, eventually, the charismatic demon lord Mephisto (Sacha Baron Cohen).

Riri strikes a deal that will change her life in every way... but it also puts her on the same slippery slope she witnessed in the Hood. It’s a choice that Thorne says is “tough to see,” especially as Ironheart ends on the kind of cliffhanger designed to drive audiences wild.

“You’re thinking, ‘You just saw the demon monster that Parker turned into,’” Thorne jokes, referencing Riri’s supernatural showdown with the Hood in Episode 6. Still, the actor says, “it makes sense for the ride that she’s been on” — and with that foundation, Riri’s next adventure in the MCU “could actually go crazy.”

Fans are already entreating Marvel for another season of Ironheart, but the possibilities for the character are endless, from a Young Avengers team-up to a darker arc in the franchise’s next big crossover, Avengers: Doomsday. Thorne, of course, can’t say much about Riri’s future — but in an interview with Inverse, she unpacks Ironheart’s surreal finale, her character’s complicated reality, and the chances of a team-up with the MCU’s next Big Bad.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Ironheart has one of the bigger villain twists that Marvel’s pulled off in some time. How gratifying did it feel to learn that you’d essentially be introducing the guy that the fandom’s been obsessing over for years?

It felt incredible. I remember at the time I was like, “Oh, yeah, let’s go. Let’s shoot this scene right now.” And we did — I found out about Mephisto a few minutes before we jumped in — [but] you want to leave it all on the field. It felt like additional confirmation that folks really believe in the show and that folks are really excited about the story that we had to tell.

I’m sure. The attitude toward the Disney+ shows can sometimes be that they’re not that important to the larger MCU — but Ironheart is very much saying, “No, no, this is essential.”

Yes, we are. To put Mephisto in the mix definitely felt like, “Yeah, we know this is going to be insane.”

I also really love how... Are you familiar with the term “girlfailure”?

No, I’m not.

It’s like the opposite of a girlboss; “a girlboss who can’t stop losing.” Carrie Bradshaw is a girlfailure, Shiv from Succession is a girlfailure…

Oh, I know where this is going. [Laughs.]

I wouldn’t completely classify Riri as this, but she does make a lot of mistakes, especially in striking this deal with Mephisto to bring her loved ones back from the dead. Talk to me about owning her flaws and all of her setbacks.

Oh, man. Word, learned a new term. And that makes total sense. I think to me, it feels a little bit like how we see her super genius kind of reveal itself. I think the primary thing that falls off or takes a backseat in the lineup of things that Riri wants to focus on, is the grief and the weight of the emotions that come with losing someone so close to you at such a young age.

“This is without a doubt a character who needs to be seen and digested in her entirety.”

We’re seeing it come to that head from Episode 1 to 6, starting with her decision to use brain scanning technology and it completely backfiring [by creating N.A.T.A.L.I.E.]. That gets right into the heart of it — kind of bypasses the brain, goes straight to the subconscious and the heart, and pulls out this thing that she needs to look in the eyes. And still, she rejects it. As the stakes continue to rise, it completely makes sense that when she gets the chance to alleviate this one burden that she has not been able to rid herself of through her own means, that [Mephisto] is an option that she chooses to lean into.

It also feels like kind of the first time she might be looking at it as putting herself first. Throughout the series we see her attempting to do the right thing for insert whoever: for her family, to prove MIT wrong, what her dad would’ve wanted, whatever. All these things obviously are important to her, but this choice is something there’s no confusion about. There’s no doubt. There’s no second-guessing. She wants this clearly, and so it’s tough to see, but I definitely think it makes sense for the ride that she’s been on.

They say for an actor, the most important thing to do is to not judge the character you’re playing. Did you ever find yourself side-eyeing Riri and then pulling yourself back from that?

Absolutely. You’re thinking, “You just saw the demon monster that Parker turned into. How did we get here not 30 seconds after you just came back down to the pizza shop?” You’re definitely trying to put that away; quieting that initial impulse. I’ve been able to talk about it since the show is done. But I was definitely trying to find the “how” behind her actions. “How?” is really what takes her through every decision that she’s made.

I’m sure on some level the exceptionalism is coming out, too. She sees Parker fully turn into a demon and goes, “Well, that won’t happen to me.”

Exactly, exactly, exactly. Absolutely thinking, “Oh, I’m not Parker.”

There’s been a lot of discourse about Riri’s choices, and how they make her different from someone like Tony Stark. I’m curious if you have a response to those who might want to paint her as a villain outright without examining her nuances.

Yeah. It’s not surprising to me that the nuance, like you say, and the complexity of her origin, is [overlooked]. This is without a doubt a character who needs to be seen and digested in her entirety in order for her to make sense, or for the empathy to jump out of another person. That, to me, speaks to the truth of Black women. We must be seen and digested in our entirety in order to really be valued or loved in the way that our existence just demands. So that being Riri’s reality, and her story being just as complex as some real-world women, it doesn’t shock me that people are not hesitant to take that and villainize her for it — because that is also reflective of the real world. You know?

I do.

I think that the people who are able to identify that nuance and... “Resonate” feels like too cheap of a word, but resonate with it… I think those are the people who the character is for.

“It feels really good to know that that type of gentleness exists with [Robert Downey Jr.].”

Staying with Tony Stark, I’m so touched by your relationship with Robert Downey Jr. Did you get to pick his brain about the similarities between your characters, the legacy they share?

He’s really incredible. And I won’t say that it shocked me, but what has surprised me is how genuine his excitement has been. To see how real he is, how closely he’s watching, and how real his support of the kind of arc that we’re talking about, has been super, super cool and encouraging to see. We sure did have a longer phone conversation about the first three episodes. There was a lot of recognition and appreciation, coming from someone who’s been in that very unique situation of having to set up something new.

Because of his experience and because of the arc that his character had, he knows just what is possible, and also how much more there can be. It was so, so great to be able to talk to him and hear him fan out about the things that he loves about the MCU and that he’s seeing in Ironheart. It just feels really good to know that that type of gentleness exists with him.

We don’t get to see Tony’s comic-book dynamic with Riri in Ironheart, but I have seen some people say, “Well, maybe Downey could mentor her as Doctor Doom…”

I have seen that, yeah. [Marvel is] not going to tell, but real talk, I really wonder. I think that the possibilities could actually go crazy. I think a lot of folks have pulled out some of them already, but for everything that we think could happen, there’s always 10 other options that the MCU is considering. I’m just as intrigued, to be completely honest, but have minimal context on what that could look like. All the more reason why I’m excited to see what kind of response we get from the powers that be to all of this love and intrigue.

Ironheart is now streaming on Disney+.