Why ‘Ironheart’ May Be in Trouble Before it Ever Premieres
With Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 in the books, fans are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Ironheart on Disney+.
A spinoff of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart will continue ot the story of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams as she returns from MIT to Chicago with her iron suit in hand.
Back in her hometown, Williams begins to unravel threads that bring danger and adventure right to her doorstep.
Photo: Marvel
The arrival of Ironheart is interesting, not just for its narrative implications but also because of what the series represents.
A Show From a Bygone Era
At the time that Ironheart was announced, Disney was pressuring Marvel Studios to create new content for Disney+, as then-CEO Bob Chapek believed that the company’s future was on streaming, not necessarily in theaters.
Photo: CNBC
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe expanded to streaming, the studio opted to create limited series that were essentially made like long movies. While the early fruits of these labors, such as WandaVision, Loki, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, were well-received, it soon became apparent that Marvel’s strategy would not work in the long term.
With the return of Bob Iger to Disney’s helm in 2022, the company pivoted its streaming strategy, emphasizing profitability over subscriber count. The days of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on an individual Marvel series were clearly numbered.
Additionally, between the Marvel films and streaming series, the studio spread itself too thin. Later, Marvel Disney+ shows such as She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Secret Invasion were not only prohibitively expensive, but they also failed to live up to Marvel’s standards. Suddenly, the films also began to suffer.
Photo: Marvel
Clearly, something had to change.
Marvel’s Television Overhaul
Eventually, Marvel announced that it would be overhauling how it makes television. Instead of treating their streaming series like movies, the studio decided to lean into the structure of traditional television. To that end, they set out to create stories that could be serialized and last for multiple seasons.
Source: Kevin Feige | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Additionally, it became clear that Marvel needed to tell streaming stories that fans could enjoy without being caught up on the larger MCU. Likewise, the films needed to be enjoyable without watching every Disney+ series.
The first fruit of Marvel’s new streaming strategy was Daredevil: Born Again, which premiered earlier this year and was received by critics and fans alike.
Photo: Marvel
Thus, the template for future Marvel shows had been created.
‘Ironheart’s Bad Timing
It is against this backdrop that Ironheart will premiere on Disney+ this June. In many ways, a relic from a bygone era of Disney streaming, the film will directly tie into Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and tell a story that began on the big screen.
As the final series in the MCU’s Phase Five, Ironheart will also conclude an uneven period for the franchise, where, for the first time, there were as many hits as misses.
Ironheart. Photo: Marvel
The question for Ironheart, then, is whether the show will be nimble enough to pivot. Riri Williams is the exact kind of character who should thrive on the small screen. Unfortunately for everyone involved with Ironheart, the series may be victim to its production date.
