Marvel has tapped Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes as directors for its upcoming Ironheart series. Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is also involved with the project as an executive producer.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bailey and Barnes will join Disney+'s Ironheart, which does not yet have a release date. Bailey will direct the first three episodes of the show, while Barnes will director episodes four through six. Coogler, who is also directing Marvel's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, will serve as an executive producer on the series alongside his production banner, Proximity Media.
Bailey's past work mostly involves television, as she served as a producer and director on Netflix's Dear White People. She also created 2016's You're So Talented as has directed episodes of Alone Together, Mixed-ish, The Chi and Grown-ish. Bailey was additionally a producer on 2017's Brown Girls, which was nominated for an Emmy.
Barnes also has directed a number of episodes for television shows, including Mythic Quest, Blindspotting, Teenage Bounty Hunters, Ambitions, Gillian in Georgia and more. She's additionally worked on shows like Atlanta, Eve, Crossing Jordan and House of Payne.
Marvel cast Judas and the Black Messiah's Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, also known as Ironheart, in December 2020. The cast list has been slowly expanding since then, as In the Heights' Anthony Ramos, Lyric Ross and Harper Anthony are all starring in the show in unknown roles. Thorne as Riri will also appear in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Not much else is currently known about Ironheart or the angle in which Marvel will approach the source material. In the comics, Ironheart/Riri makes her first full apperance in 2016's Invincible Iron Man Vol 2 #9. The character is a 15-year-old engineering student who designs armor similar to Tony Stark's Iron Man suits. Stark eventually catches wind of Riri's accomplishments and endorses her as she becomes a superhero.
The upcoming series is written and overseen by Snowpiercer's Chinaka Hodge. "It's an amazing project," Ramos previously said of Ironheart. "Incredible people, Chinaka Hodge and Ryan Coogler, and just like a dope squad, Dominique Thorne and I feel blessed and grateful." Kevin Feige, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Zoie Nagelhout and Hodge will all serve as executive producers alongside Ryan Coogler.
Ironheart does not yet have a release date on Disney+. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled for release on Nov. 11. Following that, Coogler is working on a Wakanda-centric series for Disney+ that also does not yet have a release date.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter