Note: This story contains spoilers from Marvel’s “Ironheart” Episode 6.
It’s been years of conspiracy theories and grasping at possible clues, but Mephisto has finally entered the MCU, live and in person — er, in demon? He showed up in the “Ironheart” finale and apparently, not even series star Dominique Thorne knew it was going to be him until she arrived to set to shoot the scene.
“That’s when I knew, ‘Oh! OK, great,’” she told TheWrap with a laugh. “Even the names were fake. I mean, Marvel, hats off to them. They are so committed to the lore and the secrecy that even us within the cast weren’t sure who it was actually going to be.”
Throughout the first season — it remains unclear whether it’ll be the only season at this point — of the series, now streaming on Disney+, the running theory was that Parker Robbins received his magic hood from Dormammu, a villain Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) seemingly took care of in his first solo film.
Still, Dormammu is a seriously dark being, so Zelma (Regan Aliyah) is pretty confident he’d have the power to do this, and promptly informs Riri (Thorne). But when Riri comes face to face with the man herself, he laughs at the fact that she believes him to be Dormammu.
No, he’s Mephisto, the villain fans first started hoping to see back when WandaVision released in 2021. “Ironheart” was announced in 2020, and went into production in 2022, and granted, there were reports floating back then that Sacha Baron Cohen had earned the role, but he was never officially confirmed.
“The name in the script kept changing,” Thorne revealed. “And so it wasn’t until we shot that final scene, I’m sitting face to face with Sacha Baron Cohen, where I’m like, ‘Oh, he said it. It’s Mephisto, here we go. That’s who he is.’”
You can watch part of TheWrap’s interview with Thorne in the video above.
Obviously, the “Ironheart” team knew how long Mephisto’s name had been whispered about, and according to Thorne, they kept that in mind when discussing how to set the tone for the actual reveal.
“It was just, ‘This is something that fans have been waiting for for a long, long time, and this is going to be how they get it,’” she explained of the discussions on set on how to go about it, tonally.
“Also, peeling back the curtain to understand, ‘Oh, my goodness, this is who Parker Robbins has been talking to this entire time? This is what the hood is connected to? This is that guy?’ Finally getting a lot of those answers, just within our own storyline, far more for the MCU at large. So definitely, definitely leaning into all of the anticipation for that final moment, for sure.”
The thing is, Riri Williams also seems to immediately strike a deal with Mephisto, selling her soul to get her best friend Natalie (Lyric Ross) back. As the final moments of the episode come to a close, we see Riri now sporting the visceral, magic veins that Parker had all over his back.
So, what does that mean for Ironheart? Has she turned to the dark side, officially?
“I don’t know,” Thorne teased. “We might need to keep an eye on her, is all I think I can say for now.”
That said, Thorne also admitted that, while the actor in her would love to lean full tilt into playing a villain, the actress also knows how important the character of Ironheart is as a whole, and what her history means.
“I think the version of me that’s also aware of how much she means as a hero to so many young girls out there is really wanting to fight for that moral whatever that she — it feels like she really does want to lean into,” Thorne said. “But I do really think there’s something there. I think there’s something unique and cool about the authenticity of that crossroad.”
“I mean, yeah, I know what the right thing to do is, but this is my best friend,” she continued. “I can’t get my father back. I can’t get my stepfather back, but my best friend? Right now? Especially as a young person going through that particular transition of, you know, young teenager-dom into young adulthood, that’s such a tender time to have lost someone so close to you. Truly like losing a part of you.”
So, what will Riri Williams’s future actually hold? We’ll just have to wait for her next appearance.
“Ironheart” is now streaming on Disney+.
The post ‘Ironheart’ Finally Introduced That Marvel Character – and Not Even Star Dominique Thorne Knew About It | Video appeared first on TheWrap.