Dominique Thorne talks Marvel's 'Ironheart' and Robert Downey Jr.'s support

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In Marvel’s new series Ironheart, Dominique Thorne has some pretty big shoes to fill.

As Riri Williams, also known as Ironheart, Thorne is taking over from Robert Downey Jr. as a super-smart MIT student who creates her own technologically advanced, Iron Man-inspired suit of armour. After appearing in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the character is getting her own chance in the spotlight in a new six-episode Disney+ series that debuted this week.

Determined to build a version of Iron Man’s suit that can help people in her community, Riri becomes entangled in the world of dangerous magic that has the potential to have a far-reaching impact on the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe and next year’s Avengers: Doomsday.

Downey, who has retired as Iron Man/Tony Stark and moved on to playing the villainous Doctor Doom in Doomsday, crashed an interview Thorne was doing live on Good Morning America recently to offer his congratulations on her new role.

“Ms. Thorne, I couldn’t be happier than to be seeing you bring Riri Williams to life,” Downey said. “Long story short, Iron Man loves Ironheart.”

The endorsement from “Mr. Marvel” left Thorne shellshocked. “Ironheart loves Iron Man, too” she replied.

“He’s so supportive,” the native New Yorker tells Postmedia, reflecting on the viral exchange in a video interview. “But for him to do it as this public surprise, catching us off guard, was real cool.”

The new Chicago-set limited-series follows Riri after the events of Wakanda Forever as she is trying to enhance her high-tech suit of armour. After she is expelled by school officials, Riri quickly finds herself out of options and takes a job working for a shady criminal group led by the mysterious Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), also known as “The Hood.”

“Riri doesn’t even know if she’d call herself a hero,” Thorne says describing Marvel’s newest defender. “We see a lot of folks pop up in the MCU, and they have a very strong mission to do well or correct some mistake, but Riri is not at all concerned with any of that. She just wants to make cool s***.”

Her “tinkering” in Wakanda Forever is what gets her noticed by Robbins’ gang. “She’s drafted into this superhero (world) without really knowing if she’s even interested, and that’s an intriguing place to start from,” Thorne adds.

Ramos, who caught his big break as one of the original stars of Broadway’s Hamilton, says his baddie leans into mystical elements that are akin to Tom Hiddleston’s Loki.

“I think any of the villains you see that play around with dark magic have been interesting,” he says. “The deeper you get into it, the harder it becomes to get out of it and escape.”

Thorne, who caught the acting bug as a kid, had been dreaming of getting the chance to join the MCU since she was a teenager. When Ironheartexecutive producer Ryan Coogler was looking to cast Shuri, the younger sister of T’Challa in Black Panther, he found her enthusiasm infectious.

Despite settling on Letitia Wright, Coogler says Thorne’s audition left an impression. 

“She made it all the way down to casting reads with Chadwick (Boseman, the late actor who played T’Challa/Black Panther),” the Oscar-nominated filmmaker says in a separate interview. “So, when it came time for the character of Riri Williams, she was the first person we had in mind for that role from the impact that she had left from getting so close.”

Her role as Black Panther party activist Deborah Johnson in 2021’s Judas and the Black Messiah reminded him of her acting range.

“We were impressed with her there,” Coogler says.

Chinaka Hodge, who created the show, says she’s excited to inject a character into the MCU who has a lot of layers to her personality.

“The movies that brought me to the MCU and kept me in the MCU featured scrappy, grounded protagonists who were trying their best with not as much resources they needed,” Hodge says. “That was an important through line for Riri to make her a character that had somewhere to go.”

Like all Marvel projects, Ironheart is expected to have far-reaching impacts on its ongoing interconnected storylines that now span 36 films and more than a dozen live-action shows.

Fans have speculated that actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who signed on to the series in an undisclosed role, is playing demon character Mephisto. But Thorne and Ramos clearly have their marching orders from Marvel, and know not to spill any secrets.

“Mephisto?” Ramos says in faux surprise. “Never heard of him.”

“I don’t know about that one,” Thorne adds with a chuckle.

Still, the show will be filled with plenty of Easter eggs for Marvel fans to spot, director Angela Barnes says.

“There’s a few,” Barnes says. “Our sharp-eyed fans out there will spot a thing or two.”

Coogler says he didn’t even catch them all. “A couple of them went over my head,” he says laughing.

And there’s moments of levity in between all the high-stakes action.

In one scene, Thorne belts out Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know with co-star Alden Ehrenreich (Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story), who plays a reclusive tech genius.

Thorne breaks into a grin when she hears the 1995 Grammy-winning song is cemented in Canadian rock history.

“That was incredible. Shout out to Alden. Oh my goodness gracious that is an actor,” she roars. “In that scene, he was definitely down to have a good time. And as many takes as they wanted, they got.”

Ironheart is now streaming on Disney+.

mdaniell@postmedia.com