Riri Williams charmed audiences in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but Iron Man’s supposed inheritor has made precious few MCU appearances since that movie premiered in 2022. Next month, however, we’ll finally get a look at her spotlight series, Ironheart.
For a show that premieres in just a few weeks, Ironheart has had a surprising lack of marketing. Fans finally got a sneak peek at the series, but it comes with a disappointing update on its release structure that suggests Disney doesn’t have a lot of faith in Marvel’s latest show. Check out the full sneak peek below, which features Ironheart executive producer and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler.
It’s interesting that the featurette reveals Ryan Coogler’s love of the X-Men, considering they’re gearing up to make their proper MCU debut. But this clip also reveals that Ironheart will release three episodes on its premiere date of June 24. A three-episode premiere is new for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it suggests Disney+ is looking to dump the whole series as soon as possible.
Three-episode premieres aren’t new for Disney+, as both seasons of Andor released three episodes on their respective premiere date. But the Star Wars drama had 12-episode seasons, while Ironheart has only 6. Similarly, Daredevil: Born Again had a two-episode premiere, but in support of a nine-episode season. Ironheart dropping three episodes at once means there will only be three episodes left to release weekly.
This may remind fans of Echo, which dropped all of its episodes at once and was promptly relegated to secondary status behind higher-profile weekly shows like Agatha All Along, Hawkeye, and Loki. Ironheart’s release structure may be a sign that Marvel isn’t looking for Riri Williams to make a big impression on the MCU; even though she’s a prime target for recruitment into the Young Avengers, her spinoff seems to be getting the short end of the stick.
Hopefully, this is just a quirk of the Disney+ release schedule and not a sign the streamer doesn’t believe its own content. We’ll find out more when we get a movie’s worth of Riri right from the jump.
