All The Easter Eggs and Fan Theories From The 'Ironheart' Series Premiere

Previously on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a 15-year-old technological genius attending MIT, creates a vibranium detector which is then stolen by the CIA and used by them to obtain vibranium for their own purposes. She is then hunted by both the nation of Wakanda, and by the vibranium-rich underwater kingdom of Talokan, ruled by Namor (Tenoch Huerta), which just attacked several CIA agents after they attempted to approach their territory. Talokan soon ends up going to war with Wakanda, over their refusal to join forces so they can declare war on the rest of humankind. Their war results in the death of Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Leticia Wright) creating an artificial version of the Heart-shaped Herb to gain the powers and abilities of the Black Panther, and Riri designing an upgraded suit of armor to fight alongside Wakanda against Namor and his Talokanil army. The two nations manage to declare a peaceful alliance, and Riri heads back to America, but without her suit, which remains in Wakanda upon Shuri’s insistence.

THE STORY SO FAR: Riri is continuing her studies at MIT, while also selling engineering projects and algorithms to other students in order to fund the upgrades needed for her suit of armor. One of her professors, and the dean of MIT, discover this, and expel her from MIT, effective immediately. Riri then takes her suit (which she personally paid for, but is still activated by her MIT student account) and flies back to her hometown of Chicago, where she lives with her mother, Ronnie (Anji White), and reconnects with Xavier (Matthew Elam), the brother of her best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross), who was killed in a drive-by shooting alongside Riri’s stepfather, Gary (LaRoyce Hawkins).

Riri still hasn’t recovered from this tragedy, and is soon approached by Parker Robbins, a.k.a. The Hood (Anthony Ramos), who leads a crew of thieves that are targeting greedy and ruthless billionaires in the city, and her technological skills are all that’s missing for them to continue their heists. Riri agrees to Parker’s offer, which not only leads to her newest armor upgrades (accompanied by the armor’s system mapping her brain for hours while she’s asleep) creating an A.I. that looks, sounds, and acts just like Natalie, but connects her to a black market tech ethicist named Joe McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich), who both help Riri as she slowly realizes that Parker is not to be trusted, and that his warpath against Chicago’s wealthy is not going to end well for anyone who crosses his path, including Riri herself.

WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT THESE EPISODES?: The opening flashbacks that highlight Riri and Natalie’s friendship. (Natalie: “What do I want more than anything? I want a night with Thor and his hammer.”) The Atlanta-style title cards that appear as part of the onscreen environment in each episode. Riri’s confrontation with Professor Wilkes and Dean Choi before her expulsion, as she explains to them that she refuses to be small, or listen to anyone who demands that she be small and not live up to her potential. Dean Choi immediately calling her out, Cliff Huxtable-style, and telling her to her face that no one there at MIT told her to be or feel small. Riri’s flight back home to Chicago, which comes to an immediate and painful halt when her MIT student access to the suit no longer works, and she ends up crashing to the ground, and forced to drag her armor the rest of the way home. Legendary actress and voice artist Cree Summer (“just clearing the stank aura that you drug in with you. Don’t mind me.”) Parker’s team refusing to ever refer to Stuart by his chosen nickname of “Rampage.” Xavier giving a mixtape to Riri that is on an actual cassette, and a Walkman for a cassette to be played on. (For any younger readers who have no idea what a cassette or a Walkman is, ask your parents or older relatives, and be prepared for them to wince and clutch their chest a little bit when you do.)

Riri waking up from her suit’s brain-mapping to find that the A.I. is Natalie, a.k.a. N.A.T.A.L.I.E. (Neural Autonomous Technical Assistant and Laboratory Intelligence Entity).

N.A.T.A.L.I.E.: “See, I don’t understand why you’d want to erase me when I’m literally perfection.” Manny Montana as John, bringing the same raspy-voiced charm and sociopathy swagger that blessed our television screens on Good Girls. N.A.T.A.L.I.E. and Riri’s conversation when the latter traps the former in her desktop computer. (“Wow, the betrayal!” “What? It’s got games.”) Joe McGillicuddy (and fortunately, the show itself touches upon how fake this name sounds) trying and failing miserably to confront his neighbor about her letting her dog sh-t on the grass in front of his house, along with his obsession with having “Live Laugh Love” signs in almost every room, as well as his style (or lack thereof) resulting in Ronnie thinking that he’s middle-aged when he shows up at Riri’s apartment. Riri and Joe singing Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” together while on the road, and fortunately, their cover of the song is much better than that of Kevin’s cover on The Office. Joe revealing to Riri that his real name is Ezekiel “Zeke” Stane, and that his father is none other than the late Obadiah Stane.

HOLD UP! OBADIAH STANE?!?! TONY STARK’S MENTOR AND FRIEND WHO ENDED UP BETRAYING HIM AND TRYING TO KILL HIM SO HE COULD HAVE THE IRON MAN ARMOR FOR HIMSELF?! THE OBADIAH STANE WHO HATED TONY STARK FOR BUILDING THE ARC REACTOR FOR HIS FIRST SUIT OF ARMOR IN A CAVE WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS?! THAT OBADIAH STANE?!: Yup, the one and only. And no, Zeke, in no multiverse will ‘Obadiah’ ever be seen as a common name.

Riri and N.A.T.A.L.I.E. hanging out and growing closer to one another as a result. The entire scene of Riri, Parker, and company attempting to take down Heirlum, and how badly the whole thing goes, from Parker killing the CEO (and several of Heirlum’s security guards) after his ego takes one too many hits, the crew nearly suffocating to death thanks to Riri accidentally triggering Heirlum’s security system, and Rio going up against John, and accidentally leaving him to suffocate and die when N.A.T.A.L.I.E. and her armor come to the rescue.

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD ABOUT THESE EPISODES?: Ronnie seemed much calmer and rational than expected about the fact that’s he was facing an A.I. made to resemble her daughter’s dead best friend. And John expressing his ill-fated confrontation with Riri that he always had doubts about making her a part of the crew is very unconvincing, considering that none of that doubt or reluctance ever came across in their previous interactions, especially when he approached her about joining in the first place.

And also, the fact that Anthony Ramos (whose performance as Parker/The Hood is good, I won’t deny that) is playing a role that could easily be played by Jasmine Cephas Jones instead. For reasons. (Whether or not you believe the reasons behind why they broke up, it would just be nice to see Cephas Jones onscreen in a lot more projects.)

DO ANY OF THE AVENGERS MAKE AN APPEARANCE IN THESE EPISODES?: No.

DOES SHURI MAKE AN APPEARANCE IN THESE EPISODES?: Other than the scenes from Wakanda Forever that show Shuri and Riri working and designing together, no.

ANY EASTER EGGS WE SHOULD WATCH OUT FOR?: Riri refers to her time in Wakanda as an internship, which wouldn’t be that far off if true, as there is a Wakandan School for Alternative Studies in the comics, with Shuri as acting headmaster. Riri stashes the money paid to her by another MIT student in Scott Lang’s book Look Out for the Little Guy, and another paying student retrieves a flash drive from a copy of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, specifically located in the book’s second chapter titled “The things I contemplated must be done.” “Griot Algorithm” on the whiteboard is a reference to storytellers in West African folklore known as griots, and Griot is the name of the Trevor Noah-voiced A.I. from Riri’s suit of armor in Wakanda Forever. Slug, the incredibly stylish hacker who is a member of Parker’s crew, and whose face card is rarely ever declined, is played by legendary drag queen Shea Couleé, who, much like Riri, is from Chicago. The comics version of The Hood (the actual hood worn as a garment) not only provides teleportation, invisibility, and firearms enhancement, but it also makes the person wearing it into a host for Dormammu, whose name is damn near impossible to forget if you’ve watched Doctor Strange.

Riri’s car, the 1971 Plymouth Cuda 440 Six-Pack, was originally restored by her stepfather, Gary, and was repaired in Wakanda after it was wrecked in the car crash seeing in Wakanda Forever, only for it to be sold by Riri so that she could afford to continue building and enhancing her suit. Riri’s A.I. in this series is Natalie, but in the comics, it was Tony Stark, and Robert Downey Jr. is too damn famous and expensive. TNNL’s underground network of highways not only resemble the maglev tracks that operate shuttle trains in Wakanda, but they are also reminiscent of how Black neighborhoods were ruined and even destroyed as a result of the development process for many highways, particularly those in California. Riri saying to Parker “Magic is code for ‘I don’t know’ is another explanation of the MCU to break down what magic is and how it works, following Thor’s “your ancestors called it magic, and you call it science, and I come from a place where they are one and the same” to Jane Foster, and the (whitewashed) Ancient One’s “We harness energy drawn from other dimensions of the multiverse to make magic” to Stephen Strange.

ANY FAN THEORIES SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE ACROSS THE INTERNET BECAUSE OF THESE EPISODES?: Mainly that Mephisto will finally make his debut in the MCU, and that he’ll be played by Sacha Baron Cohen, who is credited as a cast member own Ironheart, but whose role remains unknown. Riri losing the bio-mesh that she borrowed from Zeke, and accidentally leaving it behind at Heirlum when she promised not to do anything that could end up harming him, and having his life torn apart by the cops and S.H.I.E.L.D because of this? Expect that to be the start of Zeke’s villain origin story, even though he stated his desire to be nothing at all like his father.

ARE THERE ANY SCENES DURING THE CLOSING CREDITS FOR ANY OF THESE EPISODES?: No.

DO KAMALA KHAN AND/OR KATE BISHOP SHOW UP SO THEY CAN RECRUIT RIRI TO JOIN THE YOUNG AVENGERS CHAMPIONS?: Sadly, no.

HAVE PEOPLE REALLY BEEEN REVIEW-BOMBING THIS SHOW ON THE INTERNET BEFORE IT EVEN AIRED A SINGLE EPISODE?: Ironheart is not only a female-led project in the MCU, it’s a female-led project where the female protagonist is a Black woman. So of course, the racist f-ckboys and Pick-Mes came out in full force to not only review-bomb the series on sites like IMDB, despite the fact that most of these people doing the review-bombing hadn’t seen a single episode, but even after some of them finally watched it, they couldn’t wait to drag the show and its lead character for filth, as evidenced by the names of the YouTube videos reviewing and discussing Ironheart after its premiere:

“Ironheart is an iconic disaster.”

“Ironheart is a masterclass in bad morality.”

“Ironheart is the worst person in the Marvel Universe.”

“The worst Marvel show ever made.”

For anyone who has used and been on the Internet longer than a month, it should come as no surprise that negativity and cruelty seem to get far more attention than positivity and kindness, especially when it comes to commenting on people and things in pop culture. (Before somebody points it out: yes, I haven’t missed the irony of me saying this on a website that once prided itself on saying some ruthless sh-t about celebrities, and went after Katherine Heigl as if she herself was the true mastermind behind 9/11.) And for a lot of these f-ckboys and Pick-Mes, especially those on YouTube, they’ve realized that they’ll get more clicks, more followers, and more money if they say the worst things possible about what’s happening in entertainment, and especially about what’s happening in the world of politics. (Just ask The Boondocks version of Ann Coulter, for example.) Hence why they keep expressing their hatred of all things Star Wars, The Last of Us, and of any and all comic book adaptations that focus on characters who aren’t able-bodied white men. It’s why they will say things like “Riri Williams is the worst person in the Marvel Universe!,” and say this while pretending that she truly deserves their hatred and contempt for reasons that have nothing to do with racism, misogyny, and internalized misogyny.

All while ignoring the existence of Bullseye, an FBI agent-turned-merciless killer; Black Widow, a former assassin-turned-SHIELD agent-turned-Avenger who admitted more than once that she had “red in her ledger” that she wanted to wipe out; Erik Killmonger, a black ops agent who robbed and murdered to claim his birthright as ruler of Wakanda, and then attempted to use his crown to rule over the rest of the world with little to no mercy (and who some people would rather see inherit the Black Panther mantle instead of Shuri); Baron Zemo, a criminal mastermind who murdered numerous people, including King T’Chaka of Wakanda, and manipulated the Avengers into turning against one another (but hey, he did a cute little dance move or two at the club on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, so hey, all is forgiven); and Tony Stark himself, who was a rich, powerful, and unrepentant weapons manufacturer whose creations ruined countless lives until he saw the error of his ways and began using his Iron Man armor to protect others, and to hopefully redeem himself.

(deep, heavy, Negro spiritual sigh) It’s amazing the things people will say and do because of racism and misogyny. Whether it’s letting a cruel and incompetent f-ckmuppet take over the White House not once but twice, or expressing their complete and utter hatred of a television show — and the young Black woman that it’s about — that absolutely nobody is forcing them to watch, all because its very existence is more than enough to make them madder than the Incredible Hulk himself.

TO SUM IT ALL UP: After the one-two punch of Agatha All Along and Daredevil: Born Again, it’s slowly becoming easier to watch a MCU show on Disney Plus without constantly wondering when it will falter as it gets closer to the finish line, and after these first three episodes, Ironheart is contributing to that feeling. The performances by Dominique Thorne, Lyric Ross, and Alden Ehrenreich have been doing much of the heavy lifting in making viewers care about them and what they’re experiencing, and it’s also great to see the competency porn of Riri using her brainpower and her skills at making her suit the very best that it can be, even if it means working day and night in her room as Tony Stark once did in a cave with a box of scraps.

And to those racist f-ckboys and Pick-Mes, Robert Downey Jr. is showing plenty of love and support to Dominique Thorne, and to Riri Williams, so please take this as another sign that you and your hateful opinions mean absolutely less than nothing.

The first three episodes of Ironheart have been brought to you by “Best Friend” by Saweetie and Doja Cat:

“Superstar” by Lupe Fiasco and Matthew Santos:

And “Say No To This” by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Leslie Odom Jr., and the company of Hamilton: