Sam Bailey and Angela Barnes will direct episodes of Marvel Studios’ “Ironheart” series at Disney+, the company announced on Monday. Bailey will direct Episodes 1-3 and Barnes will direct Episodes 4-6.
Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media is producing the series alongside Marvel Studios. The Walt Disney Company has an overall exclusive television deal with Proximity that was announced in February 2021.
“Ironheart” stars Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, a genius inventor who builds her own advanced suit of armor and follows in Iron Man’s footsteps. Thorne will first appear in this year’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
In the comics, Williams is a Black teen prodigy attending MIT who builds her own suit by reverse-engineering Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit design. Williams is also a genius like Tony, if that’s not immediately clear. In the comics, Pepper Potts mentors Riri in a similar fashion to how Tony took Peter Parker under his wing in the MCU, providing her with resources and a suit AI.
Ironheart is a fairly new character in the comics, having only been introduced in 2016 and created by Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato. Leading Thorne’s live-action series will be Chinaka Hodge, who will serve as the head writer.
The cast includes “In the Heights” Star Anthony Ramos and newcomer Harper Anthony, which TheWrap first reported.
Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian and Chinaka Hodge will serve as Executive Producers alongside Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, and Zoie Nagelhout.
Barnes is the creative force behind the viral “Get Your Booty to the Poll” voting campaign. She is also an in-demand television director who has helmed episodes of “Mythic Quest,” “Blindspotting” and the upcoming fourth season of “Atlanta.”
Bailey is a writer/director from Chicago. She is the co-creator of the Emmy-nominated “Brown Girls” and the creator of the Gotham-nominated “You’re So Talented,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Bailey served as a producer and director on the final season of Netflix’s “Dear White People” as well as a director on the previous season of the show. She also directed Powderkeg’s “East of La Brea” (SXSW Selectee, Urban World Film Festival Winner). Bailey was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2018, The Root’s 100 Most Influential African Americans of 2018, and she received Shadow and Act’s RISING Award in 2019.
Bailey is repped by Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment, CAA, and Amy Nickin of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. Barnes is repped by Brant Rose Agency: Brant Rose & Toochis Morin Rose and M88: Gabriel Mena, Natalia Williams.