This Is Us star Lyric Ross is joining the Marvel Studios family. First breaking the news of her casting, The Hollywood Reporter announced the Déjà Pearson actress signed on for a role in Disney+’s upcoming Ironheart, Marvel’s series featuring the titular Iron Man-adjacent character, which will be penned, in part, by head writer Chinaka Hodge (Snowpiercer).
Ironheart was originally announced as part of a Disney Investor Day Presentation in December 2020, and ever since the news about the series has been slowly trickling in. The Ross casting announcement is just the most recent information eagerly awaiting fans have learned about the upcoming series. Ross has been with This Is Us since the hit NBC drama’s second season, playing the role of Déjà Pearson. However, with the show set to end this year with its sixth season, she will have time to become a Marvel superstar. Ross is also known for her work in Canal Street and Rogers Park.
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Ross will join previously announced cast members Dominique Thorne (If Beale Street Could Talk), who is cast in the lead role of Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, and Anthony Ramos (In the Heights), who was cast in an undisclosed role. In the comics, Riri debuted in 2016’s Invincible Iron Man No. 7 and was created by writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato, and builds her own version of the Iron Man suit in an MIT dorm. However, for Marvel Cinematic Universe fans looking for a good place to start with the character should check out 2018’s Ironheart by Eve L. Ewing, Kevin Libranda, Luciano Vecchio, Matt Milla, Geoffo, and Clayton Cowles.
Lyric Ross May Play N.A.T.A.L.I.E.
NBC
At a certain point in the comics, Riri even takes over for Tony Stark as Iron Man, with A.I. Stark’s blessing; in the MCU, Stark is played by Robert Downey Jr., but the character heroically died fighting power-mad Thanos in Avengers: Endgame, and is now a hologram-type version of himself. Given these facts, some fans have speculated that eventually Thorne’s Ironheart could play the same role in the MCU as she does in the comics. For now, the premise of the show promises to the follow the Marvel Comics character Riri Williams, who (at least in the comics) dreams of becoming an astronaut until her best friend and stepfather get killed in a drive-by shooting. Determined to find a way to protect her hometown of Chicago, the genius inventor reverse engineers Tony Stark’s designs and creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.
According to THR, Ross is playing Riri’s best friend. Her best friend was developed in Ironheart 2020 by Danny Lore, Vita Ayala, David Messina, Mattia Iacono, and Joe Caramagna. In the comics, Riri develops her own A.I. named N.A.T.A.L.I.E., who is based-off her deceased best friend. Even as an A.I., N.A.T.A.L.I.E. remains one of Riri’s best friends and often helps her get out of worlds of trouble.
According to the latest information on the series, it’s been hinted that the main villain of the show could be none other than the son of Obadiah Stane, played by Jeff Bridges, who became Iron Monger in 2008’s first MCU movie. In an apparent casting grid for Ironheart, there is a role being sought for a “character in their 40s who is brilliant and comedic but may not be what it seems and has secrets to hide.” Could Stane’s son be the one bringing the world of trouble Riri and her best friend N.A.T.A.L.I.E.?
