It’s rare for me to cover Funko Pop figures on this blog as they’re not really my cup of tea. That said, these figures (along with leaked Lego sets) do provide early looks for characters we’ll potentially see in future movies or series. One of these is Riri Williams who’s set to make her MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
To those unfamiliar with her comic book origins, Riri Williams is a young protege who builds her own Iron Man armor after stealing materials from MIT. She then meets Tony Stark, which allows her to improve her armor and ultimately becomes Ironheart. Things will obviously be different in the MCU iteration with Tony Stark gone. But she’s in Wakanda with all that advanced technology and, as seen in that trailer, it looks like Shuri will be the Tony Stark parallel. We don’t see her in action but thanks to these aforementioned solicitations, we have our possible first look at the first Ironheart armor.
Funko Pop aesthetics aside, the armor itself looks really rudimentary, just like how Iron Man Mark 1 looked in Iron Man. We see a semblance of an Arc Reactor on her chest that’s strapped to the armor pieces on her arms and legs. She also appears to have multiple thruster units on her arms and legs. And while we don’t see Iron Man’s signature Repulsors, this version of the Iron Heart armor has a large cannon strapped over her right arm. As mentioned, everything looks all over the place, but this is prototype technology, though not made in a cave with a bunch of scraps.
With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever approaching in November, I do expect to see more images of this first Iron Heart suit as we near the movie’s release. Until then, this would have to do. Riri Williams will also headline her own Ironheart series, which has received a Fall 2023 release date on Disney+.
