First Ironheart Trailer Highlights Tense Elevator Scene

Ryan Coogler can’t seem to catch a break. The director’s latest film, Sinners, has been a major box office hit, and the award-winning filmmaker is already back to work on his next project: Marvel’s upcoming limited series Ironheart.

The studio has just released a new trailer ahead of its June 2025 premiere.

Marvel’s Ironheart Series Stars Dominique Thorne

Six-part Ironheart is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Dominique Thorne (Underdogs) will star as teenage tech genius Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, who was Tony Stark’s protégé in the comics. The series will be the last television release in the MCU’s Phase Five.

Ironheart was originally announced in December 2020 and was expected to be released in 2023. To reduce output and production costs, Marvel restructured its long-term strategy for the MCU, reducing the number of titles it releases each year and pausing production on several projects. The Ironheart series was delayed as part of this move, which was a response to some consumer concerns that Marvel was oversaturating its market, and its premiere will be this summer.

Live-action footage of the project was first shown at the 2024 D23 convention, where it was described as “basically a crime show with an Iron Man twist at the center.” Unlike many MCU shows, the series will have a darker and grittier tone.

Aptly enough, the character Riri Williams first appeared in live-action in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the film, she found herself in conflict with Namor and his army of blue-skinned warriors after creating a vibranium detector at MIT. With the Wakandan metropolis under siege, Riri made friends with Shuri, bonding over their shared love of science. By the end of the film, she had also built an armored suit inspired by Iron Man to help Wakanda protect itself. She gave the suit to the Wakandans when the city was no longer in danger and returned to MIT.

A Story of Tech Versus Magic

Ironheart follows directly after Wakanda Forever. The official summary reads, “Set after the events of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart pits technology against magic when Riri—determined to make her mark on the world—returns to her hometown of Chicago. Her unique take on building iron suits is brilliant, but in pursuit of her ambitions, she finds herself wrapped up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins, aka “The Hood” (Anthony Ramos).”

Thorne is joined in the cast by Lyric Ross (Moonshot) as her best friend, Natalie Washington, Alden Ehrenreich (Carnival Row) as Joe McGillicuddy, Manny Montana (A Recipe for Blood) as Cousin John, Matthew Elam (Luke Cage) as Xavier Washington, and Anji White (Manny, Slayer) as Riri’s mother, Ronnie. Shea Coulée (Hit), too, will star in an as-yet-unspecified role as Slug. Jim Rash (A Taste of Code Noir) is also set to reprise his role from Captain America: Civil War as the dean of MIT, and Sacha Baron Cohen has been confirmed for a role that has not yet been disclosed.

The new trailer, for its part, dives right into the action. We see Riri inside a pizza shop that is closed for the night. She finds herself trapped in a poison-filled elevator, and the doors will open in two minutes, the building will lock down, and her identity will be exposed to the world. The situation is an “interview,” as the mastermind behind it puts it, with The Hood, a mysterious man who has manipulated events to this point. He offers her one chance to avoid asphyxiation: Hack into a floor-mounted black cube with a gas mask inside, or die. Riri, instead of immediately cooperating, refuses to break in and shows off her impressive hacking skills to break out another way.

The Hood, charmed by her inventiveness, offers her a place in his unspecified team, which he makes clear is on the wrong side of the law. Riri hesitates at first but is eventually convinced by her desire to “make something iconic,” and soon, she’s in, despite her friends’ protests and questions about The Hood’s character. These appear to be well-founded, especially after he tells Riri, “Anyone who has ever accomplished anything iconic in life has had to do some questionable things to get it done.”

Marvel announced that the first three episodes of Ironheart will be available to stream on Disney+ on June 24, 2025. The remaining three episodes will be released one week apart. There has been no word on a second season, but the door is open if the series is a hit.

Fans can get an early look at the show’s action, suspense, and character drama in the trailer and a newly released featurette.