Ironheart has an uphill battle. The latest Marvel series for Disney+ has been sitting on the shelves for years, and it was starting to look like it might be the first one of these projects to get the ol’ Batgirl treatment.
Springing off the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the show focuses on Riri Williams (Dominque Thorne), a young genius MIT student, who’s built her own Iron Man-like suits that would give any of Tony Stark’s inventions a run for their money. Based on the trailers that were unceremoniously dropped less than a month before Ironheart’s premiere, Riri will find herself facing off against more supernatural threats like The Hood (Anthony Ramos) and possibly Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, if the rumors are to be believed.
Anyway, the marketing for this series has been noticeably light. Although, Robert Downey Jr. made a surprise appearance on GMA this week, where he essentially gave the show his blessing. Will that stop the worst people on the internet from shrieking about wokeness? Probably not, but good effort on Marvel’s end. At least until we get to the release schedule.
On Tuesday night, Marvel confirmed that Ironheart will have a very brief run. It was known heading into the series premiere that the first three episodes would drop on June 24. However, there was a question mark around whether Ironheart would pivot to a weekly release schedule. Not so much. The remaining three episodes will start streaming on July 1, which means Ironheart will be over and done with in eight days.
On the one hand, this move leans into the narrative that Marvel is dumping this show and moving on as quickly as possible. On the other hand, Disney+ had a similar release strategy with Andor that put up huge numbers. So maybe they’re hoping this approach will boost viewership because things did not go well for Daredevil: Born Again. While it seemed like that show received a significant amount of hype and positive reactions, it never once cracked the Nielsen Top 10. That’s bad!
So, with the Daredevil predicament in mind, it’s hard to tell what Marvel is doing here. Are they dumping a show or pulling a Hail Mary pass to goose a surprise hit? Maybe both?
