Marvel’s Ironheart which premiered its first three episodes on June 24th and the final three episodes on July 1st, faced a pattern that has become familiar for Marvel’s female-led projects. The series follows Chicago-native Riri Williams, a 19 year old black girl and tech genius who first appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The cast also features diverse actors such as ‘Hamilton’ star Anthony Ramos as The Hood, Drag Race alum Shea Coulee as the computer hacker known as Slug, and trans-mac nonbinary actor Zoe Terakes as one of the characters known as the Blood Siblings. This diversity has been targeted as “woke” by detractors, and had a debut popcornometer score of 32% hours before the series had even aired.
The critic reviews of the show have been much more balanced, and the show now has an 86% Fresh rating on the Tomatometer. Many critics comment on the great job of casting and the work of the actors, while some feel the story could have been condensed into a movie instead. Ironheart is now streaming on Disney+.
