The MCU is missing its Tony Stark, so Ironheart star Dominique Thorne explains how not having a mentor affects Riri Williams: "It does set the stage for a very interesting journey ahead"

Fans of Marvel's comics will be acutely aware that tech-whizz Ironheart has a close working relationship with Iron Man, even borrowing a set of Tony Stark's armor on occasion.

Given that the Sacred Timeline's Tony Stark is now a non-factor in the MCU (has it really been six years since Avengers: Endgame?), there's more of a power vacuum to be filled when it comes to mentoring Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams fresh off her exploits (and underwater kidnapping) in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Enter: The Hood. Played by Anthony Ramos and described by Williams as "this mystical, magical sort of entity", the crime boss is set to enter the MCU in close orbit to Riri.

"We know that The Hood couldn’t be farther apart from Riri in terms of her being a very logical 'show me the facts and run me the numbers' person," Thorne says in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features M3GAN 2.0 on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, May 21.

Thorne adds, "Coming off the heels of this super vulnerable experience, with her having been imprisoned, that vulnerability presents a very tender opportunity for Riri to make a real and impactful decision about how her genius will impact the world around her. How will it affect the people that she loves? How can it affect her own goals and ambitions?"

But Ironheart is not in The Avengers (or the New Avengers, for that matter). Standing alone and with relatively limited resources puts her in stark contrast - pun not intended - to some of Marvel's hard-hitting heroes.

"There’s a clear understanding that she’s not Tony Stark. She does not have a billion dollars at her disposal. She does not have the resources... she doesn’t have the mentorship, or the guidance," Thorne says. "And so what does it look like for someone like The Hood to enter her sphere now, where she is vulnerable and reflecting? It does set the stage for a very interesting journey ahead to see the people who pop up as she’s working to get those answers and what the scale of their influence can be, if any?"

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Ironheart releases on Disney Plus from June 24. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which will be available from Wednesday, May 21. Check out the M3GAN 2.0 cover you need to be looking out for on newsstands below...