I feel that Alden Ehrenreich's Ironheart character is linked to this Phase 1 MCU villain

Ironheart is almost a month away, and the Disney+ miniseries released its first trailer on May 14, 2025. The trailer offered glimpses of Anthony Ramos's charming but mysterious Parker Robbins/The Hood. While the main antagonist of the six-episode miniseries is The Hood, fans believe that the trailer is currently hiding another villain in plain sight, Alden Ehrenreich's Joe McGillicuddy.

For a while, the internet was rife with rumors that the name "Joe McGillicuddy" is just a fake name that Alden Ehrenreich's character uses. It is believed that he is playing Ezekiel "Zetke" Stane in Ironheart. It is his surname that you should focus on. In case you forgot, the main antagonist of Iron Man (2008) was Jeff Bridges's Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger.

Fans, including me, believe that Zeke is the son of Obadiah. It also makes sense that Riri Williams/Ironheart, who might be attempting to continue Iron Man's legacy, might have to confront someone linked to Tony's first antagonist.

Who is Ironheart's Joe McGillicuddy?

Based on the little glimpses of him we saw in the Ironheart trailer, it looks like Joe is a black market arms dealer Riri visits to upgrade her Ironheart armor. In the closing minutes of the trailer, Riri and Joe enter the latter's bunker, which she describes as "shady." Joe doesn't like his bunker being described as "shady" and points out the neon "live, laugh, love" signage on the wall.

Riri humorously points to the crate of missiles right below the signage. Joe retorts that he was going to sell those off anyway, but Riri doesn't seem to believe him. But it is this crate of missiles that had me believe that Joe McGillicuddy is living under a different name to avoid any kind of suspicion, considering Obidiah Stane's attempts to kill Tony and his dealings with the terrorists might be public knowledge.

Joe, being Obidiah's son, will cement Riri as the character who will carry forward Iron Man's legacy in the MCU. In addition, the way this show was made also harkens back to 2008's Iron Man.

Brad Winderbaum revealed that the Ironheart armor is practical

Brad Winderbaum, the head of TV, streaming, and animation at Marvel Studios, spoke about this series on Brandon Davis' Phase Hero: A Film & TV Podcast in November 2024. In that interview, Winderbaum revealed that the makers working on Ironheart made sure to create a practical armor for Riri Williams, similar to the first Iron Man movie. His exact words were:

“There’s a full practical suit. It doesn’t obviously do all the crazy things that the suit does but we used a lot of techniques that go all the way back to the first Iron Man film, where we actually had a practical suit on set. First of all, just even as a visual reference for the CG artists having the actual suit there, even if it had to do like CG things and open and close and stuff… it had all the perfect lighting reference, so the emulation is just spot on. It’s awesome. I mean I’m sure it’s going to be in the Marvel lobby in a few months.”

Winderbaum also teased Riri's character arc in the Disney+ series:

“It’s a bit of a quarter-life crisis for her [Riri]. She fought in Wakanda, she fought Namor, she had this great adventure. But the day-to-day struggle is still real… She’s Riri Williams. She’s gonna do what she needs to do to get by for her and her family and everyone else. And it does lead her down some roads.”

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On June 24, 2025, Ironheart will premiere, with the first three episodes releasing together.

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