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One of the more anticipated shows of the year, Ironheart is here! And it is taking us on a roller coaster ride through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ironheart starts off with Riri Williams (played by Dominique Thorne) navigating through the challenges in her technological ambitions and trying to overcome personal trauma.
From some mind-blowing AI tech to thrilling chases and ominous magic, a lot happens in the first three episodes of Ironheart that premiered on Disney+ on June 24, 2025.
Riri’s life takes a new turn in IronHeart
The first episode of Ironheart starts off with a flashback of Riri and her friend Natalie (played by Lyric Ross) dreaming of their future. We find Riri at M.I.T. selling her science projects to students. Her reason? Get rich enough to become the ultimate inventor in the world, like Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.).
During a demonstration for Professor Wilkes (played by Jim Rash), sparks start firing up randomly in the lab, causing panic. She is called for a meeting by Dean Choi (played by Tanya Freeman), who expels her, effective immediately.
As Riri makes her exit in this Ironheart pilot episode, she grabs on to the Iron Man armored suit and flies past security with the help of TRVOR, MIT’s built-in AI assistant. She heads to her home city, Chicago.
In Chicago, a group of criminals is getting ready for a heist. However, they run into a problem when one of the members fails to disable the alarm, which summons the police to the location. The group manages to fight their way through and ditch the heist.
In Ironheart, the leader of the group, Parker Robbins (played by Anthony Ramos), is referred to as ‘The Hood.' He decides to tell his right-hand man John (played by Manny Montana) that they must fire their tech guy Stu (played by Eric Andre), whose fumble cost them today. With three more jobs on the line, they cannot afford to make any more mistakes. But Riri flying past them grabs their attention.
While Riri is able to send a message to her friend Natalie’s brother Xavier (played by Matthew Elam), TRVOR shuts down, indicating that MIT has invalidated Riri’s access to the AI. Riri crashes on arriving but manages to get home.
Riri tells Xavier that she wants to build the best iron suit but feels that she needs to find a job first. They stop at a garage where there is a mural of Riri’s stepdad and Natalie. Xavier apologized to her that he was not there when the incident happened to offer her support. At home, Xavier gives her a mixtape to listen to. John is suspensefully watching Riri at the end of the street.
Riri takes on a new job to fulfill her ultimate inventor dreams in Ironheart
The next day, Riri and Xavier would head to the junkyard to pick up spare parts. As she struggles to pay the bill, John comes in and pays it for her. He pretends to be friendly and suggests that she meet ‘The Hood,’ as he could help her with her financial pressure.
In Ironheart, Riri's ambitions take precedence as she readies to take the plunge into the unknown. She would arrive at the spot John had asked her to come to. When she tries to get to the second floor in the elevator as commanded by John, it breaks down and gas starts leaking. To her horror, she is told that this is an interview. A voice belonging to 'The Hood' asks her to break into the device to get a gas mask, as the group of criminals watches Riri on a monitor. When she manages to break out of the dangerous situation, she is welcomed with loud applause from everyone.
Riri is still shaken from the interview, but she needs the money to start on her dreams as agreed to join the Hood and the crew reluctantly.
At home, Riri is listening to Xavier’s mixtape and working on her suit when she hears a voicemail from Natalie. She sees a flashback where she is in the garage and hears people fighting outside, which leads to shooting. Riri’s stepdad and Natalie are shot and killed. The memory triggers her deeply, and it is clear that she has still not processed the incident.
The Hood and John are discussing the next day’s job. John is working on the Hood’s tattoo across his back and arms. There are black veins across the areas, looking like a mysterious skin condition. He hangs his cloak in a room with ominous whispers.
Ironheart sees Riri’s friend come to life, thanks to her AI
The second episode of Ironheart sees Riri's AI program coming alive. Riri drifts off to sleep thinking about Natalie. When she wakes up, she finds a projection of Natalie standing before her. It is N.A.T.A.L.I.E., or Neuro Autonomous Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity. Riri realizes that the AI Natalie is pushing back against running diagnostics that can possibly delete it. Riri is interrupted by her mother and she leaves Natalie to go meet the Hood.
The crew and Riri are prepping for the job, which is taking on a company called TNNL. Their job is to stop the company CEO, Sheila Zarate’s (played by Zhaleh) demonstration by uploading a virus so the crew can negotiate. Riri will be required to adorn her suit for the job.
But here’s the problem: the suit is still not completely ready. So she got a list of black-market shippers to find what she was looking for at the earliest. She comes across a man, Joe McGillicuddy (played by Alden Ehrenreich), who supposedly helps her find what she needs to get her suit up and running.
After a few hiccups, he agrees to take Riri to an off-site location to give her the thing. They arrive at a property where he had hidden his collection. He is reluctant to part with it, as he feels his father, who was an engineer, believed technological advancement was the future. Ironheart drops a clever Easter egg here.
In the meantime, AI Natalie has figured out how to leave the laptop, and the projection makes its way to the kitchen, where Riri’s mother was working. While she is startled at first, she knew of her genius daughter's work and starts bonding with AI Natalie.
The Ironheart's episode also addresses Riri's self-doubt. Riri is still skeptical about creating AI using brain-scanning technology. Joe points out that the ethics of it all depend on the creator. As soon as she completes the suit, she is asked to get to the job. While her job initially goes on fine, AI Natalie instructs her on the ways to shut down the system. The Hood is able to negotiate with Zarate, and she signs without an argument.
Riri and the crew’s celebration comes to a halt when a security guard points a gun at them. AI Natalie suddenly stops responding to Riri, and The Hood fires at the guard, hitting his shoulder. Back at the headquarters, Riri asks a member about The Hood, but is just told that he doesn’t know anything. She later asks AI Natalie why she disappeared suddenly, and she tells her that she remembers parts of the night when her friend Natalie died and that triggered an emotional response for her to flee.
Riri shares her doubts about the Hood and the weird energy she feels around him, but also the fact that an AI should not have a response such as this from a memory.
Magic and secrets in the air in Ironheart
At The Hood’s place, he opens his closet to mysterious whispers in the air. John refuses to cover up his veins with tattoos and leaves The Hood to handle his own troubles.
The crew is celebrating their successful job when one of the members breaks into The Hood’s vault and takes his hood. Riri and the member look at it suspiciously when John gets agitated with them for touching it. But The Hood lets them off easy as they have their next job lined up.
Riri is caught in a dilemma of whether to take part in the heist as she does not want to become a criminal. But she needs the money as well, and that leaves her wondering about the choices she is making. The Hood tells her that she wants to become a huge success, and anyone on such a path will need to adopt some nefarious ways to achieve their goal. He also tells her that his hood has magic, but she is skeptical.
Riri refuses to tell Xavier about her job, and he gets increasingly concerned about it. Joe approaches her with his ideas for bionics; though she is hesitant, she takes his blueprints.
AI Natalie is now much more self-aware and criticizes Riri for treating her like a robot instead of her best friend. She refuses to see past the fact that she is just a code.
When Riri learns about Stu’s death, she starts spiraling, thinking the Hood killed him. Fearing for her life, she decides to take a piece of the magic hood during the heist.
Truth about Joe's identity is revealed in Ironheart
However, John informs the crew that they need to step back from the heist, as he is unable to find any weakness of the CEO of Heirlum, and they plan to carry their job on. But The Hood is confident and wants them to proceed. One of the highlights of Ironheart episode 3 is the revelation about Joe.
Riri goes to Joe’s place and shares her idea of using his tech to enhance bio-mesh skin with cloaking capabilities. But Joe is against it.
He finds a zip-lock bag in Joe’s house with his father’s ashes, labeled ‘Obadiah S.’ Obadiah Stane (played by Jeff Bridges) was a mentor to Tony Stark and a very memorable villain. Joe finally shares the truth that he is Obadiah’s son and his real name is Ezekiel Stane.
Ezekiel tells her that Obadiah died while trying to kill Tony Stark and calls him a supervillain. She assures him that he doesn’t need his father’s legacy to define his. Ironheart takes this moment to address the first supervillain in the MCU universe.
With the bio-mesh skin and laser cutters, she meets the crew for the heist. While the crew is set on the plan in the tightly secured facility, Riri has her own agenda in progress. She let AI Natalie take control of the suit and went to sneak up on the Hood. As the Hood and the crew negotiate with the Heirlum CEO, Riri would sneakily cut a corner of Hood’s robe. But the system detects the cutter, and the facility is shut down, sealing everyone in with thinning oxygen levels.
Riri is confronted by John, who finds her with a piece of Hood’s robe. AI Natalie manages to come just in time to put Riri in the suit and leave John behind, suffocating. The crew runs away when they are unable to find John.
During the last moments of episode 3 of Ironheart, AI Natalie tells Riri that the biomesh is no longer on her arm as Riri starts to worry since Joe had explicitly told her that he does not want the tech to come back to him. On the other hand, the Hood is overwhelmed because of John’s disappearance. He tells his hood that he is done with it and gets a vision of John suffocating and Riri’s suit.
Throughout the first three episodes of Ironheart, John is the main man for the Hood, and his death clearly devastated him. It is understood that Riri is the person that the Hood's master revealed to him as the person behind John's death. It is yet to be seen whether the Hood will unleash himself completely; if he does, this could be the beginning of the supervillain in Ironheart.
Watch Ironheart on Disney+.
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