Allow her to Ri(ri)introduce herself.
Dominique Thorne suits up again as Riri Williams in Marvel Television’s “Ironheart.” The Disney+ series continues the adventures of the teenage tech genius, who was introduced in the 2022 movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” But this time, the action is set in Riri’s hometown of Chicago, where she returns after her term at MIT (she’d enrolled at just 15 years old), flames out spectacularly.
Those are the type of questions the series — executive produced by “Black Panther” filmmaker Ryan Coogler, with “Snowpiercer’s” Chinaka Hodge as creator — spends most of its six-episode run exploring. At its core, “Ironheart” is a story about a young woman figuring out how to move forward after suffering a tremendous personal loss — the deaths of her stepfather and her best friend — so the armor she’s building to protect herself and those she loves is both literal and metaphorical.
That’s meaty material for a young talent like Thorne, 27, to sink her teeth into. She’d been captivated by the “bright, bold, exciting” character after seeing Riri make her debut in the Marvel comic books, which hit shelves in 2016, while she was in college at Cornell University.
“Understanding how much possibility, how much foresight, how much ingenuity, is wrapped up into this one young woman is very exciting to think about and to read on the page,” Thorne tells Variety about her initial impressions of the character.
Then, in 2020, Thorne got a call from former Marvel executive Nate Moore saying the studio wanted her to play Riri in “Wakanda Forever,” followed by a standalone series. “Ironheart” filmed in 2022, meaning that Thorne has had five years to become an expert on all things Riri. It was fulfilling and thrilling, she says, “to really lean into her upbringing, her neighborhood, the people and the things that have made her who she is and the loss that’s also embedded into the naming of herself in this mantle.”
Thorne adds: “Honestly, I don’t think I can capture a deeper feeling of gratitude than the one I’ve gotten from getting to bring this world, and this piece of the MCU, to life.”
Of course, as an ironclad inventor, Ironheart is also linked to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s O.G., Iron Man a.k.a. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.). During an appearance on “Good Morning America,” Downey Jr. surprised Thorne with a message of congratulations on the new show.
“Miss Thorne, I couldn’t be happier than to see you bringing Riri Williams to life … Iron Man loves Ironheart,” Downey said, holding up his hands in the millennial “heart hands” symbol, while Thorne responded with the Gen-Z version — an unconscious representation of the generational divide. Because, with “Ironheart,” we’re entering a new iron era. Read on as Thorne explains how the show sets Riri apart.
This show is not so much about continuing Tony Stark’s legacy as it is about building Riri Williams’. What was that like to establish?
This truly is a brand-new world that we’re leaning into. And it’s also so familiar to us — the very real, grounded heart that exists in the South Side of Chicago. Her connection to her hometown and the environment is so informative for who Riri Williams is, and as we see in the series, also tells us a lot about how she’s viewing this responsibility, what it all means to her and the people that she’s lost to become this. So that, in itself, is so very different from the Tony Stark-Iron Man legacy that he has established.
And she acknowledges that, as we knew we had to, right out the gate. There is no “Iron”-anything without Iron Man. But if there wasn’t, she probably would have done this anyway. That’s a fun understanding to lean into.
Early on, there’s a scene where Riri is so confident in her abilities that she says that she’s gonna be bigger than Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Stark and “Ant-Man’s” Hank Pym.
Combined!
Combined! What was it like to embody that confidence? Because she knows that, no matter what happens, she has the brains to figure it out.
It’s encouraging on some levels, and really aspirational. At least, that’s what it was for me, reading this young woman on the page. She’s so sure of herself and that’s something that is really exciting about the women that we see throughout this show — whether it’s Natalie or any of the women in the crew, these are folks who are showing up in their truth; they understand why they’re here; they know what they have to offer; and they’re ready to get it going. They want to see the fruits of their labor. It’s nice to see a sense of pride come out of that, rather than shame.
The heavier emotions that Riri is balancing here come from the need to kind of lean into the vulnerability that also comes with being a human person, and remembering that she is a young human woman and not an iron thing, as her mother definitely tries to remind her throughout the show.
As the show goes on, it becomes clear that this girl is literally creating armor around herself, as she is still not quite able to deal with the things that have happened to her with the deaths of her stepdad and best friend. What were your conversations with head writer Chinaka Hodge and executive producer Ryan Coogler about where Riri is in processing her grief?
There were many conversations about that journey throughout the series, also with Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes, our block one and two directors.
I couldn’t help but be conscious of how much we’re leaning into the trauma that she’s experienced. It is a fact of her existence. At the same time, we are not at all confused about how quickly she’s ready to move on from it. So, how do you strike the balance between wanting to honor this young woman who is so brilliant in so many ways, but also has a very difficult past. And wanting to make sure that we weren’t necessarily chasing the pain and clinging to the affliction in there, but being honest about the difficulty and the weight that often comes with needing to face a loss as close as the ones that she experienced head-on.
When we discussed “Wakanda Forever,” you mentioned Riri was operating in “fight or flight” mode. But “Ironheart” explores the third trauma response: “freeze.” What did you make of that?
There’s always another choice, and I think Riri has always acknowledged that other option when it came to leveling up in school, or proving her teachers wrong, or helping Shuri out when she came calling. Whenever it came to leaning into that genius, leaning into the thing that she knows she can do so well, it was easy to see the other option.
Now, when it comes to this feeling that she cannot let go of, that there is no machine she can build to put those thoughts on mute. Quite literally, in an attempt to advance in her technical musings, she ends up creating a reflection of the pain that she’s been experiencing, which clearly speaks to how necessary it is for her to confront it.
So, while it was absolutely a little bit of an awareness or a consciousness about not wanting to abuse the pain that she’s gone through there is also a lot of power in leaning into and addressing and moving through the things that are burdening you so that you can move forward in a truly healthy way.
Let’s talk about N.A.T.A.L.I.E., Riri’s A.I. system that manifests as a hologram of her late best friend, Natalie. It’s so fun to watch the dynamic that you and Lyric Ross have on screen. What did you aim to showcase with their friendship?
It is just so beautiful and fun to see these two young girls standing in their power, and also presenting a necessary and healthy challenge to one another.
Natalie is constantly reminding Riri, number one, that she’s right and that Riri’s not the only person in the room who’s smart, but also, “Hey, I’m a part of you. Acknowledge me. Deal with me. Remember how much fun we used to have?” Like, this is not a wholly negative and terrible thing; the grief may come in heavily, but a big part of that weight also comes from the fact that the love and the joy and the friendship was so pure and so real and so grounded. And that’s what Riri really needs to hear. Lyric does such a fabulous job of being the perfect voice of reason for Miss Riri.
The suit from “Wakanda Forever” weighed 52.5 pounds. What about these two new suits?
[Sighs.] Oh, boy. Well, I’m quite glad that I did not have to get fully inside of these practical builds, because they had to have been at least two to three times the weight of the first one. But they kind of just existed as these huge six-foot statues, and then they’d have different versions, different iterations of the suit that I put on either from the waist up or chest up. So, the team definitely took some notes and made adjustments, which my back and knees appreciate.
What was the biggest adjustment that they made?
They created a hanger-like contraption, so when I did have the suit on — because now the tradeoff was because it wasn’t fully practical, it was very top heavy — they created this, like, standing rack thing that when I am standing or in holding, they could hook me up and take off some of the weight. Very ingenious; they’re truly geniuses behind the scenes.
