Ironheart creator Chinaka Hodge assuaged any fears newcomers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe may have by letting the world know you don’t need to watch any of the previous Marvel movies to enjoy Ironheart. That’s true—but if you’re a Marvel diehard, you’ll be excited to know the first three episodes of the new Disney Plus show has a surprising connection to the very beginning of the MCU that expands the history of one of Marvel’s most beloved characters.
In the first three episodes, we follow Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) as she goes through the typical Marvel origin story—forced to build herself back up from square one, motivated by the loss of loved ones, and dealing with supernatural bad guys. She also finds a quirky yet brilliant sidekick to sheepishly help her optimize her Ironheart suit, with an interesting twist. After meeting McGillicuddy (Alden Ehrenreich) and visiting his shady bunker full of black market weapons, Riri gets him to confess that his name is actually Ezekiel Stane. And he has a Ziploc bag full of the ashes of Obadiah Stane—his father!
Those who have been MCU fans since it began with the first Iron Man movie in 2008 will remember Obadiah (Jeff Bridges) as the ruthless Stark Industries executive who orchestrated Tony’s kidnapping in Afghanistan and horrifyingly pulled the arc reactor out of the Stark Industries founder’s chest. In the show, Ezekiel says he is 36 years old, which would make him roughly 17 when his father was killed by Iron Man. That’s still young enough for him to have developed the sort of trauma that’ll turn someone into the type to hoard weapons of mass destruction as a “hobby.”
Interestingly enough, Ezekiel tells Riri that he and his father weren’t close (hence the Ziploc bag urn) and references his father’s nefarious Iron Monger alter ego. However, in Iron Man, it’s never publicly revealed that Obadiah was the Iron Monger, which could suggest Ezekiel either had intimate knowledge of his father’s crimes from being involved, or that he was told about them later in life. Either way, Ironheart adds a cool expansion to the MCU history books—without making that the central appeal of an already great show.