Ironheart’s Dominique Thorne on Playing a Super Genius in a Changing Marvel World

Ironheart won’t be a rookie superhero when her solo series makes its debut on Disney+. In fact, she already helped Shuri and Okoye fight off both the FBI and some of Namor’s Atlantean warriors in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But the show Ironheart will feel like something of a fresh start for the hero, and not just because it’s been three years since we last saw her in the MCU.

It’s because Ironheart, known most the of the time as teen genius Riri Williams, is still figuring out who she is. For Riri’s actor Dominique Thorne, that makes her all the more exciting.

“Riri’s going back to the heart of it all,” Thorne tells Den of Geek about her character’s status quo in Ironheart. “She’s going back home. She’s returned to Chicago, and our girl has a lot to reflect on. The events of Wakanda shook her up and expanded her worldview. Now she has to figure out what that all means, to have been at the center of something so insane.”

A genius studying at MIT, Williams caught the Wakandans’ eye when she created a device for detecting Vibranium, which the Americans soon used to gather their own stores of the powerful element. However, Riri soon aligned herself with the new Black Panther, building her own Iron Man style suit of armor to stand with them against Namor’s attack.

In Ironheart, Riri might be back on her home turf, but she’s drawn by another powerful force, the criminal Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), who uses mystical clothing to become the Hood. As his magic presents opportunities for her, Riri must decide on how she will use her technological might.

For Thorne, the conflict between the tech genius Riri and the magical Hood represents a classic divide. “Like any of the great franchises that have existed throughout our lifetime, stories about magic and technology give us options,” she explains. “They give us range that captures the gamut of human emotion and human experience and human expression. And this is no different.”

“I think with tech and magic are these two very different ways of communicating a very similar desire. But of course, what it looks like to pursue that goal will look different on every person. So you have what that looks like for a tech genius like Riri and you have what that looks like for someone that’s in for the magic of it all like the Hood.”

According to Thorne, these options threaten to overwhelm Riri as she moves deeper into the Marvel Universe. “Seeing Riri understand that magic even exists and is an option forcers her to take a second to come up for air, to not be so hyper focused on what she’s doing to consider it all.”

“That is really fun,” Thorne admits, taking a moment as an actor to enjoy her character’s troubles. Of course, that’s just one of the challenges that Thorne has to face in playing Riri. Another involves the Ironheart armor, which includes its own heads-up display (HUD), not unlike those we’ve seen with Iron Man, War Machine, and Iron Patriot.

While Thorne didn’t get a chance to consult with Robert Downey Jr. or Don Cheadle, both old pros at acting like they’re inside a high-tech suit of armor, she did get a chance to work alongside another legend… and she found it appropriately overwhelming.

“I just jumped right in,” Thorne admits with a laugh, recalling the experience of shooting Wakanda Forever. “And I will say that was probably second to being in a scene with the great Angela Bassett herself. That was probably the most intimidating day on set for me for sure.”

And yet, Thorne handled the challenges in a way that her character Riri would appreciate. “I remember I could not stop laughing. I was like, ‘I’m so sorry, give me a second. Like this is insane.'” Breaks in decorum notwithstanding, Thorne still looks back on Wakanda Forever as a high point in her still-early Marvel career. “That was absolutely like top five moments of doing this whole thing.”

It’s a career that’s certain to continue, especially with the face of the MCU changing during the lead-up to next year’s Avengers: Doomsday. As we saw in Thunderbolts*, the US government has its version of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes running around in the New Avengers, led by Bucky and including people like Red Guardian and U.S. Agent. Then there’s the team of Avengers that Sam Wilson started thinking about in Captain America: Brave New World, which includes at least Falcon. Finally, we know that Ms. Marvel has started gathering her own team of Young Avengers, having already recruited Kate Bishop.

So which of these will Ironheart join? Of course, Thorne can’t tell us that. But she can tell us which one would be the most fun for Riri to play with.

“I gotta wrap my set. I think I gotta say the Young Avengers,” Thorne says proudly. “We’re out here!”

With that answer, Thorne gets at one of the key aspects of Riri, that she is truly a young hero.

“When we meet her, she’s just 19 years old,” Thorne reminds us. “Sometimes when we are so young, it’s very easy for us to sort of have blinders on and to only really think about or focus on what’s in front of us at the moment.”

“We saw that in Riri and Wakanda, where someone who was so smart and who had figured out all didn’t stop to think that something she was building could actually affect the world outside of her.”

Those types of mistakes make it a bit easier for Thorne to play one of the smartest people on the planet. They also help make Riri one of the more relatable new heroes in the MCU. “She’s still a young person who has crushes, who has homework, who has a mom that she has to answer to. All those things help to ground her, for sure.”

In the same way that Ironheart propels into the air, Thorne doesn’t see those troubles keeping Riri on the ground forever. As a hero who carries the legacies of both Tony Stark and Wakanda, Ironheart has a lot of potential, potential that thrills Thorne.

“I really think the possibilities are endless, and that’s something that makes me really, really excited about this character,” she enthuses. “She really has so much at her disposal. And yet, for such a vast universe, Riri somehow manages to make it feel a lot smaller and bring it down to a matter of choice.”

“What will she do with all that has shown up for her? Which decision will she make? Who will she choose to be? Who will she allow Ironheart to be? What that will mean?” asks Thorne, just as enthralled with the idea as us fans.

That’s a lot for a young hero to handle. Fortunately for Riri Williams, Ironheart’s already got some experience with tough stuff, and she always comes out of it with a smile.

Ironheart premieres Friday, June 27 on Disney+.