Marvel Iron Man recast signals a big problem for the MCU

A new Marvel series has signalled a big problem for the MCU’s new Iron Man replacement.

Earlier this week, Ironheart debuted on Disney Plus. It’s the latest television miniseries from Marvel that features the character from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever returning for a lead role.

In the show, Riri Williams is an MIT student and genius inventor who creates a suit of armour that rivals the creations of Tony Stark, the original Iron Man as played by Robert Downey Jr..

The show has a lot of references to Iron Man and the wider MCU canon, and as one fan pointed out on X (formerly Twitter), there are at least ten references to Tony Stark in the first episode alone.

“All the times THE TONY STARK was mentioned in the first episode of #Ironheart because it made me miss him even more,” user drdoomarchive posted, collecting images of each individual moment Stark is mentioned.

Indeed, it does seem like an awful lot of mentions to a character that hasn’t been in the MCU since 2019. It feels like Marvel can’t really move on from the character, even six years later.

The reason for this could be down to Marvel setting up Robert Downey Jr.’s appearance in Avengers: Doomsday, in which he plays a different character, Victor Von Doom.

It seems like Doom’s resemblance to Tony Stark won’t just be a coincidence though, which is why Marvel might be casually dropping more references to him here.

And this poses a problem for Ironheart specifically. With everyone being constantly reminded about how great Tony Stark was, it doesn’t leave any room for Riri Williams or the show itself to grow.

Not that Ironheart is a bad show or anything, but with the constant references to Iron Man, how many people might turn it off and put on one of those films instead? We’ll have to wait for the show to end to see if expectations get subverted.

The first three episodes of Ironheart are available now on Disney Plus, with the final three episodes airing next week on 1st July.